


Keep You On My Side

by Pinkpants (Tucita)



Series: Snape: The Half-blood Princess. [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, F/M, Female Severus Snape, Genderbending, M/M, Marauders' Era, Romance, Young Severus Snape
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-07-22 11:51:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7437107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tucita/pseuds/Pinkpants
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if instead of Severus, Eileen Snape,  née Prince had given birth to a daughter? What if she had had the courage to leave him behind after he dared raise his hand against her daughter?<br/>Severine Snape will become a Prince, she will still be Lily's best friend and Hogwarts will bring adventures and excitement to both girls as they navigate their way around their teenage years.<br/>And yes, that includes  James "Toerag" Potter and Sirius "Berk" Black.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I can't actually credit all the authors that inspired me to do this, because, quite honestly I only started shipping Sirius and Severus together the day before yesterday.  
> This work is a mixture of all the times I've wished there were more Female!Severus fan fictions and my newfound love for this pair.  
> If this thing resembles anything you've read before tell me who wrote it and I will credit them, because I most likely enjoyed their work enough to think I might develop a remix of it.

  
Tobias Snape was awakened by a crash coming from his daughter’s bedroom; he was torn between wanting to comfort his daughter and knowing that it was Eileen, his wife, who usually dealt with anything that happened to her.  
It was January the 9th, 1969, his daughter’s ninth birthday and his wife had spent the whole day making preparations for her party and cleaning after both Severine and her friend, the Evans girl — who was constantly around; and despite their home not being anything fancy always seemed to be in awe when Eileen or Severine were around, and who had become a permanent fixture to their household sometime around last year. Seeing his wife obviously exhausted, he decided to go into Severine’s bedroom only to be thrown away forcefully as soon as he set foot inside the tiny room.

#######################################  
  
Severine awoke to loud banging and screams, her mummy was pleading with her daddy to stop, and she sounded afraid and hurt, daddy was yelling at her to shut up, that she and “That thing in there” were freaks, there was more banging and then a thump.

The small child in the room was afraid, her daddy had never screamed and had never been angry, not even that one time Severine glued glitter all over his new shirts to make daddy look pretty, she didn’t want to come out of her bedroom but she wanted to see why mummy had gone silent and why her daddy was now banging on the walls.

She opened the door and stepped outside. Her mum was curled on the floor and she was crying Severine could see something red staining her nightclothes and behind her, her daddy was coming out of his bedroom, screaming at her: “You disgusting freak! It’s all your fault!” Severine started whimpering and she moved to cover her head with her hands, and then he stroke.

Her daddy had slapped her and she had fallen back with the force of it, just as he lifted his hand to strike once again, Severine saw her mummy getting on her feet and taking a long, thin piece of wood out of her nightgown — her wand! — And pointing it at her daddy: “Don’t.” she said in a voice so low and filled with rage that Tobias actually spun around.

“What are you going to do?” He taunted his wife, preparing to hit once more the child he had loved mere minutes ago, “are you going to hit me with that _stick_? You can’t do anything to stop me”, Severine closed her eyes, silent tears streaming down her face and just as his father’s hand was about to make contact with her head again, he dropped to the floor, writhing and moaning in pain.

Severine removed her arms from around her head, and looked at her mummy who stood with her wand clasped tightly in her hand, looking at her daddy as if she was beyond angry, she couldn’t really tell, she had never seen her mummy this angry, not even the time she showed up with scraped knees and told her the other kids had tripped her and made fun of her for having such a big nose.

Severine moved around her roiling daddy and stepped towards her mummy, she was confused and frightened; something like this had never happened, her daddy had never hit her before, not even a spanking for being naughty, as she had oftentimes heard other daddies threatening their kids. What had happened to make her daddy so angry? She came to a halt when she reached her mummy and she grabbed her hips, sniffling and trying to stop the tears from falling.

#######################################

Eileen felt her daughter’s small hands wrapping around her slim hips, she stopped her onslaught on Tobias to turn her swollen and purpling face to her daughter “Don’t worry, my child, I will never let harm come to you” she said with a painful but sincere smile on her lips, she told the small girl to wait for her downstairs, and she’d be there in less than five minutes.

Once she was sure her daughter was safe on the living room, she turned back to Tobias, she casted a strong sleeping spell and a memory charm that would make sure he’d be unable to keep them from leaving and wouldn’t go looking for them — not that he’d ever find them anyways. She stepped inside the small bathroom and started healing her face, she was able to reduce the swelling but some of the bruising remained, there was nothing for it though, she had never been proficient at healing, when she was looking better she started packing her and Severine’s stuff into a newly transfigured trunk.

She put everything they had inside the trunk, everything but the small stuffed bear that she knew Severine couldn’t sleep without and made her way downstairs to take her child back home.

They went to the Evans’ house first, yes, it was the middle of the night, but she was sure she would not be able to make her parents take her back if she kept her father from his sleep; the man was most certainly not someone you’d risk waking up and facing his wrath.

She held Severine tightly against her body as she told the Evans that she was going back to her parents’ house — at least she hoped so — and that she would try to stay in touch.  She fell asleep on the couch right after putting Severine to bed right next to Lily on the small bedroom upstairs.

#######################################

Severine woke up and the first thing she saw was Lily’s sleeping face, she had her mouth open and she was drooling slightly, Severine giggled softly but then she discovered that last night had not been a dream and suddenly, Lily’s mussed hair and drooled face didn’t seem funny anymore. Her daddy had hit her and her mummy and now they were running away from him.

She didn’t realise she was crying until she felt Lily’s head on her shoulder and her arms around her waist, her friend was telling her everything would be okay and she hoped God was listening to her, as she prayed for her friend’s words to be true.

The girls made their way downstairs when they heard their tummies groaning in protest at the emptiness. Both of their mums were sitting at the kitchen table with sad smiles on their faces, as if they knew something the girls ignored. Severine didn’t like that look, she knew they were running away from home, but Lily’s house was fifteen blocks away from her own, surely that was far enough that her daddy wouldn’t find them, wasn’t it?

Severine looked at her plate as she ate quietly, Mr Evans had taken Petunia to school but the adults had decided against taking her and Lily, she didn’t know why, this was the first time either she or Lily had skipped in well over a year, what was going on?  


“Severine, we’re going back home” her mother broke the silence and made her look up at her, startled, she must have seen the child was confused as she continued “not that one, we’re going back to _my_ home, where I grew up, you’re going to meet your grandparents”, the black eyes of the girl went impossibly wide as she registered what her mum had just told her, she would finally get to meet her grandparents! She was so happy she got off her chair and practically went flying to her mum’s open arms.

After breakfast, she waited with her mother in the living room for her turn in the shower, her mum was explaining to her why when she met her daddy she had thought it would be good to run away from home with him, leaving only a note to her parents informing them she had found love, and how she had kept her magical powers a secret from him as soon as she found out that he wasn’t going to accept anything “abnormal” and that she really thought her love alone would be enough to keep him happy.

As soon as Lily got back downstairs, Severine went up, she had her bathroom stuff with her and her mum had helped her choose the prettiest dress she had, she wanted to look good when she met her grandparents. She stood under the warm spray of the shower thinking how last night she had been dreaming of her dollies dancing for her and being silly before she was woken up to the harsh reality of her daddy not wanting her or her mummy anymore and she started shaking, what if her grandparents didn’t want them either? They wouldn’t have anywhere to go! She shook herself from these thoughts and kept washing her hair with the vanilla-strawberry scented shampoo her mum knew was her favourite and that she always made just for her.

When she finished cleaning herself, she put the towel on her head like a turban and dressed on her baby-pink dress with white polka dots, it was the prettiest one she had and also her favourite, it had been a gift from Lily and her parents last Christmas and she was really happy to have something as pretty as this. Once she was sure her hair was only slightly damp she put the towel in the laundry hamper and went back downstairs.

Her mum was also wearing her best dress, she noticed, it was an off-white lace dress that hugged her slim torso and had a circular skirt that reached just under her knees, Severine knew her mum was pretty, but right now she looked the prettiest she had ever seen and she was convinced her grandparents wouldn’t turn them down, she _knew_ it in her heart.

 


	2. Chapter One: Back Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severine meets her grandparents. Eileen makes a house elf cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I owned this characters canon would be very different.

Chapter 1: Back home  


Severine was sad to say goodbye to Lily, they both promised they would write and as Severine had already told her, in two years they should be getting their Hogwarts letters so they would meet again, both of their mothers hid smiles behind their hands, they had already made plans for the girls to spend every other weekend at either of their houses so that they could still be friends, even if they would no longer be living in the same town.

Severine grasped her mum’s hand tightly with her small fingers, her hands were a little sweaty from all the nervousness she was feeling, she knew her grandparents would want them to stay with them, she had a strong feeling about it and her instincts were hardly ever wrong, but she would miss her daddy and her mummy had already told her they would not be seeing him ever again.

She was so deep in thought that she didn’t listen to Eileen’s warning and suddenly she felt as if she was being squished to fit in a hole too small for her body, an awful and unknown feeling right behind her navel; she felt as if she couldn’t breathe but as suddenly as the feeling came it stopped and only the thought of ruining her favourite dress kept her from emptying her stomach all over the place. She took a deep breath and then heard her mum chuckling behind her, _I’m never doing that again_ she thought sullenly, as her mum started to lead her on a stone path that was surrounded by grass and that led to the most beautiful house she had ever seen.

Severine felt silly, she knew her mouth was hanging open and she also knew that this was not just any house; it was smaller than her books said castles should be; it looked like one though, so she would call it that.

#######################################

Eileen was beyond nervous, the only thing that kept her walking — hell, the only thing that kept her from falling flat on her face, was the thought of not being able to give her daughter a proper home. She was heartbroken over Tobias but she would pay it no mind, she had sworn the day Severine was born she would keep her from harm and would protect her from anything and anyone, it was hard enough having to protect her child from her own father, but she knew that if she stayed someday Tobias would actually hurt her beautiful girl and she would not allow that.

She kept her head high and her back straight, she would talk to her parents and she would make them see just how amazing her Severine was, then they would be sure to fall in love with their granddaughter and they would want them to stay. If not for Eileen herself, at least for Severine.

They arrived at the door and she took the silver ouroboros with emerald eyes in her hand and knocked three times, counted to three and knocked twice, she finally counted to two and knocked once, hoping her parents still remembered she would always knock like that when she came home on her free time when she was studying to get her potions mastery in London.

She wasn’t disappointed when the door opened; she however was gobsmacked to find herself firmly wrapped in her father’s arms and the feeling of his trembling frame as he was sobbing into her hair and mumbling how it had to be a dream for he had been waiting for this day for more than ten years.

#######################################

Severine was starting to get annoyed with herself, in the last few hours there have been more things she didn’t understand than she cared to count and that was not something she enjoyed, like who was the man holding on to her mum so hard? Was he her grandpa?! By the way he was shaking he had to be.

She heard her mum mumble something against the man’s shoulder, nothing she could actually understand; she didn’t have time to prepare herself, the next thing she knew she was off the ground and held against a strong chest, in a grip so tight she thought she was going to break in half.

The man was still crying, but they were happy tears, like the ones Severine cried when she met Lily at the park and she made her first friend ever. Her grandpa was holding her so tight she couldn’t even move her arms to hold him back; she turned her face to see her mum looking at them with a smile on her face and a look of relief. She was right! Her grandparents would want to keep them! It was a fine thing too, because she really liked the pretty, white _castle_ her mum had grown up in.

Her grandpa put her back down and stood straight, he held his hand out for her to take and said with a gentle voice “I’m pleased to meet you young lady, my name is Severus Prince, who are you?” Severine looked at him with a small frown, he had been holding on to her less than a minute ago, did he really not know who she was? She had been raised with good manners and so she took his hand and replied “It is nice to meet you sir, my name is Severine Snape and I am Eileen Snape’s daughter”.

The man laughed and turned to look at his daughter, “You’ve taught her well, I see, however I don’t quite like the sound of Severine Snape… Nor of Eileen Snape for that matter, don’t mind. Why don’t we go inside and talk about this? Your mother must already have a pile of your favourite foods the size of a house elf, we need to stop her!” Severine watched as her mum laughed and took her by the hand once more.

Her grandpa’s name was Severus! It was so similar to her own, was she named after him? She supposed she had to be, after all she had never met any other girl named Severine or any other man named Severus, and her mum had told her that her name reminded her of home, she was happy to have a familiar name, one that she shared with a man as nice as her grandpa seemed to be.

They were led to the kitchen, and Severine was a little bit afraid of getting lost — for some reason the house seemed to be even bigger on the inside than it had been on the outside, was this some sort of magic thing? Once they reached the kitchen they saw a tall, thin woman with deep chocolate brown hair that had some grey in it. She didn’t know what a house elf was, but she guessed it had to be a small creature of some sort because as her grandpa had predicted she already had a pile of food on the counter, she didn’t seem to notice their entrance, with her back to the doorway as she was, and so Severine had to bite back the giggle that threatened to come out when her grandpa said her name and she almost fell back in fright.

#######################################

Celia Prince was not amused by her husband’s antics. Though he seemed very pleased with himself, so she guessed he still thought he was funny, the poor man had an awful sense of humour she had had to learn to live with and by now she was almost immune.

Of course she had recognised the knocking, ever since her daughter had been studying to get her potions mastery in London she would long for that pattern to come on the rare weekends Eileen could separate herself from work. And it had been worth it! At age 22 her daughter had been the youngest witch ever to get her mastery degree in potions, and it was a difficult thing to get too!

Celia had been heartbroken when after having a celebration in her honour, her daughter had left the next morning leaving only a note behind. So when the knocking had come just as she and her husband were finishing breakfast she had just sat there, frozen to her spot as her husband went running for the door.

As soon as she had been able to move again, she had started going through the cupboards, taking out all of her daughter’s favourites — she was so thankful to have Peepy, she was Eileen’s personal elf and she always made sure to have her favourites made “jus’ in case little miss be comins back”, she always said while making sure everything was nicely done and put on its place.

It was really a bad thing they always made sure the elves had the Sundays free to themselves, she was considering whether calling Peepy would be a good or a bad thing while running like a headless chicken around the kitchen when her husband called her name, startling her so that she thought she would jump right out of her skin.

She put a hand on her chest and turned around, ready to scold her husband on his poor sense of humour when she saw her daughter, standing nervously to the side, holding on to a small hand; she followed the skinny arm with her eyes and found it belonged to the most beautiful little girl she had ever seen, was she her granddaughter?

The small child had a look of wonder on her face, she was staring at the small pile of food she had put on the table and Celia couldn’t hold back the chuckle that bubbled from her chest — oh, drat! She had got so lost in thought she had put too much food on the counter.

Celia then walked up to Eileen, though her pace was extremely slow, as if afraid that walking fast would make her daughter vanish. When she reached her, she lifted a hand and touched her face, still not believing she had come back.  She then found herself wrapped in a tight hug and her daughter was crying into her neck, begging to be forgiven — silly child, she didn’t know she had been forgiven the moment she knocked on the door.

#######################################

Severine was then introduced to her grandma, her name was Celia and besides having chocolate hair, she also had chocolate eyes, she was just like Lily has said grandmas were supposed to be, and she could not believe she had been missing out on so many things!

Just as she had declared she couldn’t possibly eat anymore, her grandma snapped her fingers and called in quick succession “Peepy! Meeky!” Severine heard two small pops and she saw the strangest creatures she had ever seen — that included the time she went to a fair and she saw some photos of a rooster with two heads! They were a foot smaller than her and one of them had wrinkly skin and was currently attached to her mother’s leg, they were both dressed in lilac, fluffy towels and the one that was not sobbing into her mum’s lap was standing wide-eyed, looking expectantly at her grandma.

Severine was then asked to put her hand on the small creature’s forehead and so she did, she however did not expect the rush of magic she felt as soon as her hand made contact with the little creature’s skin. Her mum then proceeded to explain — still with a lap-full of now sniffling creature, that it was a _house elf_ and that she was now bound to her. Severine didn’t know what to do as the house elf known as Meeky turned to look at her, and so her grandmother told Meeky to take her to the playroom so that the grownups could talk.

Meeky nodded with so much enthusiasm her batty ears flopped and Severine could have sworn they made a slapping sound as they touched Meeky’s cheeks.

Severine’s hand was grabbed and next thing she knew, she was sitting in the middle of a powder blue room filled with dollies and many other toys, she squealed in delight when she saw a small see-saw in red and white and she asked Meeky to play with her.

#######################################

Downstairs, Eileen had finally got Peepy to calm down, only to be severely scolded by the small elf, saying how she had been a very bad child, leaving Peepy so sad she had cried many, many days.

After de elf had been assured of Eileen’s _permanent_ stay by Celia, Eileen started to try and apologise to her parents, only to have her mother shushing her and telling her it was all well and truly forgiven.

She then heard her father clearing his throat and grabbing her hand: “Severine?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, Eileen gave them a sheepish smile and answered with a small voice “when she was born it was quite a surprise for me and Tobias, we had been told by the doctors she would be a boy, only to be surprised when they said it was actually a girl, I wanted my child to share your name, because I missed you so much, I thought I wouldn’t be able to name her after you but when I saw her I knew, she was a Severine and nothing else would be right for her”

Her father tightened his hold on her hand for a second and her mother stood to put an arm around each of them.

Eileen then proceeded to tell them her story, of how she had loved Tobias — and still did, to be honest. The happy years they had spent together and how it all fell apart the night before. By the end of it, her mother was looking at her with unshed tears in her eyes and her father had to be convinced to not go after the man as he would not remember either Eileen or her daughter.

 They continued talking and after an hour or so it was decided, Eileen would take back her maiden name to be able to inherit her parents’ estate and they would arrange for Severine to become a Prince as well, after all they had enough contacts to make it all possible and quietly.

Eileen couldn’t deny, there would always be a place in her heart for Tobias but she would move on and make sure her daughter did the same, after all, there was a reason every Prince in history had been a Slytherin.

#######################################

It was late afternoon when he woke up, he was in his bed and his body ached all over, he couldn’t remember last night, he just knew that something important was gone and he had a hollow feeling in his chest, right next to his heart.

Tobias Snape was a very sad man and he knew it hadn’t always been like this, he felt there was something missing, something precious he had lost, and after many weeks of trying to dismiss the emptiness that fell over him as soon as he stepped inside his small house, he decided to move. He spent the rest of his days working for a farmer, and if he never found love… Well, he felt like he couldn’t betray whatever it was he had forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> English is not my first language and this is the first time I don't want to give up on a work.  
> If you find any grammar/spelling mistakes PLEASE let me know, I am, if nothing else a grammar/spelling enthusiast ;)  
> \+ I had trouble picking Eileen's mum's name... I had considered Riona, which according to the internet(dot)com means Queen, but I settled for Celia which I find both pretty and strong, a name for a woman with a good head on her shoulders.  
> I used the house elf name generator because I couldn't make myself give the elves the names of Santa's reindeer :p


	3. Chapter Two: All You Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time flies by. Really, it does. Severine and Lily get their letters and all is well.

Chapter 2: All you need  
Severine was a very happy girl, she had always been one, but now her life was different, she had met the rest of her family and she felt really glad to have them. Her grandpa would sometimes go with her to the playroom and play with the puppets making silly faces. He would also make her dollies dance around the room and they had spent many hours playing tea, her grandpa was a very nice man indeed and she loved him very much.  
Her grandma on the other hand was a stern, no-nonsense kind of woman, she would make sure Severine didn’t spend the whole day playing with her grandpa and she would help Severine with her lessons. They spent time together every day, Celia would show Severine “how to be a proper lady” and every time Severine did well in her lessons, her grandma would buy her a new dress or a new dolly, she would even let her have a few cookies before dinner, all the while telling her how ladies could indulge sometimes but they had to be discreet about it. Severine new better though, she had her grandma wrapped around her little finger, just as she did her grandpa.  
Every night, before falling asleep, Eileen would enter her bedroom and Severine could choose any of the books her grandparents had gifted her with after learning they had come to live with them the morning after her birthday — they were the prettiest books in the world! She was sure of it; they were leather bound and all the pictures inside moved! She had never seen anything like that and when Lily first came to visit she had almost dropped one when the kids in the drawing started running. Severine would always pick a new one and her mum would read it too her until she was too tired to keep asking her to read just one chapter more.  
All in all, Severine was a really happy child though she always missed her daddy and she would sometimes find herself crying remembering the times he put her on his back and carried her like he was a horse, or the times he came home from work with one of the pastries they sold near the factory and that he knew she loved. Her daddy had always been the best daddy in the world — even better than Mr Evans who loved his daughters but sometimes didn’t have time to play with them. She would then remember the day her daddy stopped wanting her and her mummy and she would cry so hard Meeky would have to go find her mum so she could calm down. On those days there would be no lessons and her grandma would give her strawberry shortcake instead of cookies and her grandpa would make the silliest faces and her mum would hold her hand while reading to her.  
#######################################  
Eileen was heartbroken. It had been a bad day and she almost thought she wouldn’t be able to calm Severine down, fortunately after a good cry her daughter had fallen asleep and now she was watching over her. Severine missed Tobias; she knew she did because sometimes she did as well. Of course, being an adult and having the support of her parents the days went by almost unnoticed and now December was close. If it weren’t for how difficult it had been for Severine today, Eileen would have forgotten it was Tobias’ birthday.  
She stayed with her daughter until she woke up, she then carried her — which was not an easy feat, given the kid was already 4’4 tall, and holding her close to her body they made their way downstairs.  
Eileen had never understood when her mother had said “you’ll know when you have kids of your own” but now, as she saw Severine quiet and subdued, and knowing what it felt like to miss her own parents with all her heart, she would give anything to make her daughter happy again.  
Remembering some of the stuff she had kept in the trunk that was abandoned wherever Peepy had taken it, she called for her house elf and gave it instructions to get her something she knew would put a smile on her daughter’s face — or at least she hoped so.  
When Peepy reappeared, she bowed low and went back to teach Meeky how to take good care of Severine’s stuff, Meeky was not, after all, a very experienced house elf.  
Eileen grabbed the small rectangle and with a swift flick of her wand she had it wrapped in bright periwinkle paper with a big, white bow. She was a little bit anxious as to her daughter’s reaction but this was the only way she thought would be able to make her daughter smile.  
Severine looked up, her eyes still a bit red and swollen from before and Eileen gave her a reassuring smile, extending the small package to her daughter, she saw as the child untied the bow gingerly, she had always been careful with her stuff, having not been used to have many things, she treated everything with a cautiousness that seemed out of place on a kid so young. Eileen watched, holding her breath, as the paper was slowly removed and the package inside revealed. Severine started crying and she was afraid she had done something wrong, but then, her daughter turned a watery smile to her and she felt relieved, knowing she had done the right thing in giving her the only photo they had ever taken as a family. It had been nothing fancy, but they were all together, sitting on a blanket with Severine in the middle, Tobias’ long arm hooked behind his wife’s shoulders and the three of them holding hands on top of the girl’s lap.  
Eileen did not remember what exactly they had been doing — other than having a picnic, obviously; but she held that day as a beautiful memory from days long gone. She was glad to give the photo to her daughter, as she now had a physical reminder of her father, and a way to remember, _he had loved her, he had wanted her, she had been the apple of his eye._  
#######################################  
After she had taken a long bath, Severine went to bed, she had pretended to fall asleep after her mum had read her favourite fairy tale three times. She turned to the small bedside table and reached out for her photo. She had been very happy when her mummy gave this to her, she knew they couldn’t go back to her daddy, but now she had the photo and she could look at his face every day, she could even pretend to talk to him — she remembered his voice well enough, it was a deep voice, it almost sounded like the voices she sometimes heard coming from the radio novellas her mum used to listen to. It was a nice voice and she missed it, but as she whispered “goodnight, daddy” while holding on to her photo, she could almost hear her daddy telling her “good night, angel”.  
After that, the days went by better, Severine still had the odd bad day but now Meeky knew to go get her photo and Severine would spend a few minutes talking to it and then she calmed down on her own. She had been so concentrated on her lessons that she didn’t notice Christmas was coming until it was almost too late.  
On the 21st of December, Severine was standing on a small stool, helping her mum prepare their traditional Christmas log, she was nervous because she hadn’t written any cards yet and there was nothing she could make for her grandparents on time, so she hoped they liked the chocolate Christmas log she and her mum were baking.  
When they were done in the kitchen her mum called for Peepy to help her clean the kitchen and for Meeky to help Severine get cleaned — somehow she had flour all over her clothes and some batter had even made its way to her hair, her mum on the other hand, was suspiciously clean and had a soft smile and a small twinkle in her eyes as she told Meeky that Severine would most definitely be needing a bath.  
After Severine’s hair had been cleared of wayward batter and her clothes had been replaced by clean ones, she asked Meeky to bring her some glitter, glue and nice parchment and so she proceeded to make Christmas cards for her grandparents and her mum and obviously, for Lily.  
#######################################  
On Christmas morning, Severine woke up before everyone else, she put on her slippers and ran downstairs, and there were so many presents under the tree she didn’t know where to start, so she decided to sort them out. She was almost finished when she heard a soft chuckle coming from the doorway, where her grandparents and her mummy stood, oops, she’d been caught!  
They all sat down and Severine couldn’t believe it when she realised the largest pile of presents was for her! She had got two gifts from each of her grandparents, one from her mum, one from Lily and her parents and even one from Meeky! She opened them all carefully, admiring the violet set of robes her grandma had bought for her, it was the first ever set of robes she owned and they were silky soft; next she took one of the packages from her grandpa, he had given her a fluffy ivory winter cloak, it was as soft as a bunny she had once petted when there was a school fair. When she was done opening her presents she had also a new set of stationery all engraved with her name and letter parchment with the Prince coat of arms, besides a locket with a miniature version of her photo , which had almost made her cry, from her grandparents; a set of hat and mittens, from Meeky; a deep emerald green dress , from Lily and her parents; and her favourite, a “Make your own Potions I” from her mum, she was happy to have gotten the potions kit as she had discovered in her lessons that potions were the best!  
#######################################  
After that day, the Prince household stayed the same, following the routine Severine had grown accustomed to, with the visits to and from Lily the girls remained fast friends and this year, the year she would finally turn 11, her birthday was on a Saturday. She obviously had invited Lily and her family, Tuney was still a little difficult sometimes, but after she got a talking to from her grandma she and Lily had understood why she was jealous of them and their friendship, she still didn’t like it when she and Lily made things happen, but at least now she only eyed them warily instead of calling them freaks, so Severine didn’t mind her so much.  
She was up early that morning, wanting to look good on her birthday, after all, everyone in the house had told her how important her eleventh birthday was. She was surprised when she reached the kitchen and found her grandparents and her mum already there, Meeky and Peepy were hurriedly making sure everything was as it was supposed to be before the guests started arriving.  
At first she had been worried because her grandparents had wanted to invite other wizarding families as well but seeing as her mum was reluctant to introduce her to other magical people before she was ready, her grandparents had relented and decided they’d only invite the Evans, Severine was glad because that meant she wouldn’t have to worry about learning many names and then forgetting them.  
When they finished eating breakfast, Eileen was startled to hear a tapping sound coming from the window behind her, thankfully her grandma was quick for her age and stood to open up the window, Severine almost fell off her chair when a brown barn owl flied through the window, the owl stood proudly in front of her plate, holding out a paw with a letter attached to it. Severine was a little frightened to touch it, even more so when it hooted impatiently, but seeing the encouraging smiles from the people she was sharing the table with, she steeled herself and grabbed the offering the owl presented her with. She almost fell off her chair again.  
Severine listened as her grandma told the owl to wait and they’d soon have a reply for her, the owl hooted again but Severine’s eyes were firmly glued to the envelope in her hands, she had gotten her Hogwarts letter! Of course she knew it was going to happen, but she didn’t think she’d feel so excited for something she thought was obvious.  
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HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY  
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore  
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock,  
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)  
Dear Ms Prince,  
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.  
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.  
Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall  
Deputy Headmistress.  
HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY  
UNIFORM  
First-year students will require:  
1\. Three sets of plain work robes (black)  
2\. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear  
3\. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)  
4\. One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings)  
Please note that all pupils’ clothes should carry name tags.  
COURSE BOOKS  
All students should have a copy of each of the following:  
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk  
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot  
Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling  
A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch  
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore  
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger  
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander  
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble  
OTHER EQUIPMENT  
1 wand  
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)  
1 set glass or crystal phials  
1 telescope  
1 set brass scales  
Students may also bring, if they desire, an owl OR a cat OR a toad.  
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS  
ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK  
Yours sincerely,  
Lucinda Thomsonicle-Pocus  
Chief Attendant of Witchcraft Provisions  
#######################################  
She was so happy she was actually jumping and squealing with the letter held tightly against her chest, she showed it to her mum and her grandparents and they called Neeley — Celia’s house elf, to ask her to bring Severine’s letter parchment and quill and ink. As soon as the elf came back, her grandpa started dictating a response letter befitting someone of Severine’s station — whatever _that_ meant, she was sure she could have just written “Yes, I want to go!” and they’d be fine with it, but she really wanted to show her mum and her grandparents she had learned well in her lessons and so, her reply ended up being longer than what she had in mind.  
Later, when Lily arrived, she showed her the letter she had gotten and her friend shrieked happily, they both started making plans to go buy their things the same day and how they would be best friends forever, the adults of the Prince family then proceeded to explain Hogwarts’ sorting system while everyone else paid rapt attention to every word they said. That night Lily stayed over and both girls stayed up late, talking about what house they’d be sorted into, Lily thought all of them sounded good and Severine wondered if she’d make her family disappointed if she was not sorted into Slytherin, by whatever reason.  
#######################################  
Three Saturdays later found Severine standing nervously outside the Evans’ house, her mum was holding on to a cage that had a white screech owl inside, Severine knew her mum was nervous, but Mrs Evans had told them that her daddy had moved away last summer, and so her mum was not as reluctant to go with her as she had been.  
As they entered Lily’s home, Severine was excited to see her friend clutching a letter in her hand and running towards her, she had also been accepted! — Of course she would be, Severine had no doubts she and her best, and only, friend would be in school together and everything would be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took the acceptance letter from the Harry Potter wikia, because no matter how many times I read it I still think it's necessary to have it.  
> I'm kind of on a kick, with this so... I might post another chapter soon.  
> This is not being beta read so it might be crap at some places. As usual, please let me know if you find any mistakes ;)


	4. Chapter Three: Milk and Black Spiders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls go to Diagon Alley. Severine is mortified.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're still not mine.

Chapter 3: Milk and black spiders

They had three weeks before school started, Severine was sad to hear that a teacher had already taken Lily and her parents to do most of her shopping, but they still agreed on going to get fitted for their clothes together, she was secretly relieved when Lily said they could do that because she had spent most of her time in the house with her family, she knew about wizarding traditions and etiquette — she had taught them to her friend as much as she could so she wouldn’t have a hard time at school; but she still hadn’t actually met other kids their age, or anyone else for that matter.

She knew her grandpa would sometimes go to business meetings with other important men, like the Potter, Black, and Mal… Malfoy Heads of House, but some of the other names seemed too complicated for her and she didn’t really know how to pronounce them, still, those meetings were always grownup affairs and she was not allowed to go.

Seeing as she would buy her clothes and her wand with Lily, she remembered the times her mum had ordered things for her and they arrived with the owls, couldn’t they buy her books and her other things like that? She didn’t really want to go into the bookstore, afraid it would be filled with people and she would make a faux-pas. Her mum had agreed after Severine pointed out that Lily had already bought all of those things and it would be unfair for her to go after them while they shopped everything else.

Severine and her mum met Lily and her parents outside the Leaky Cauldron; they seemed to have arrived with a little time to spare and Lily informed Severine that Petunia had wanted to see some of the schools London had to offer, Lily’s parents were there only to make sure Lily was with Severine and her mum and would be joining Tuney at one of the schools she was interested in. Sometimes Severine felt bad when she remembered Petunia’s letter to headmaster Dumbledore, she could only hope she found a good place to go study, after all, she had been almost pleasant lately.

#######################################

Lily had already been to Diagon Alley, she and her parents had been escorted two weeks ago by deputy Headmistress McGonagall, she was very strict but also really nice, and Lily had already bought her books and her equipment, she was only missing her wand and her clothes, so they’d be shopping for that together.

She was looking at the displays in front of _Madam Malkin’s_ shop, so distracted she didn’t notice when Severine opened the door and as soon as she did, she was thrown back by a couple of running boys, Lily heard her friend yelping and making a little pained sound, she rushed to her side to help her up and they both stood there, seeing the back of the two boys who were running towards the Quality Quidditch Supplies store, one of them was really tall and the other one was a bit smaller, the taller boy had black, shoulder-length, that fell in loose curves and the other one seemed to have just woken up, his hair was jet black and it was so unruly Lily wasn’t sure how long it was, she was so angry she was about to start screaming at them—Severine was still trying to rub the ache in her bum while looking ladylike, when a woman who was younger than her grandma but older than her mum stepped outside hurriedly and grabbed both boys by their arms and proceeded to drag them away, well, good riddance, she thought.

When she and Severine stepped inside Mrs Prince was waiting for them already, sitting on a comfortable looking couch and looking at them quizzically, as if asking “what were you doing outside?” Lily gave her a sheepish smile and grabbed Severine’s hand — she was now pouting and muttering about mean boys, and dragged her to the couch, they sat next to each other and waited for someone to come.

Severine was really shy so when the sales assistant came out, Lily wasn’t surprised when her friend shoved her off and pushed her towards the woman who was wearing a pincushion as a bracelet and had a measuring tape trailing behind her.

Lily got her clothes fitted and when she was done and had chosen a nice embroidery pattern to get her name on her clothes and gave Severine a smug smile, it was now her turn and by the looks her mum was giving her friend she knew she was going to have to model each and every single item she tried on.

Serves her right — she thought amused, putting me through that! As if proving her right, every time the sales assistant stepped out of the dressing room Mrs Prince would ask Severine to also come out and show her how her robes looked, and the best of all was that even if the uniform robes were all practically the same, Mrs Prince made her friend try on each and every single one of them.

When the fashion show was over, they went back to the street, where a giggling Lily could be seen grabbing her friend by the arm and telling her to stop sulking it all had looked good on her and her embroidery was also a nice one. They had decided to get the same pattern for their name tags, which had their names written in loopy and elegant looking letters with silver vines forming a sort of frame around.

Lily was the most excited about their next stop!

#######################################

Severine was not excited about their next stop, if she thought being fitted to get new clothes and having to give an impromptu fashion show to her beaming mum and a sniggering friend was bad, this was the worst thing that could possibly happen to her.

She was so nervous she could swear she felt the moment her tummy decided to start making somersaults inside of her, what if none of the wands picked her? Did that mean she wouldn’t get to be a witch anymore?  Or would they have to go to another wand-shop? Were there even any other wand-shops? She hadn’t seen one so far, but she hadn’t actually seen much, besides the two boys she was staring at and who looked like they were nice, that is before they started running like demented animals and she fell hard on her bum— and it had been their fault too! Madam Malkin’s shop and many people’s backsides, she didn’t really know how many shops Diagon Alley had. She was sure there was a bookstore, a potions’ ingredients one, the pet-shop — she really wanted to go there, shops that sold Quidditch supplies and shops dedicated to broomsticks alone — who needed that many broomsticks shops? The ones for stationery and the ones for other equipment, but was Ollivander’s the only one she could find a wand at? She was despairing and not even her best friend’s attempts at keeping her calm were working.

#######################################

 

Lily was starting to get really worried about her friend, she turned to look at Mrs Prince and ask for her help but the only thing she did was give her a small smile and shake her head, obviously knowing her daughter was worrying over something unimportant but leaving her alone for the time being, it seemed as if her mum’s friend knew Severine would not calm down until she was ready to do so.

As they finally reached Ollivander’s shop Lily also became a little bit agitated, she could feel butterflies in her tummy and nervous excitement running through her veins, this was it, she was a witch and she would have a wand to prove it — even if the rules deputy headmistress McGonagall had shown her said that she couldn’t do magic outside the school nor show it to _muggles_ either, she was still excited, this was the final step to make her part of this amazing world Severine had introduced her to three years ago.

#######################################

Eileen Prince could see her daughter’s despair, she knew the little girl was feeling anxious, her back was stiff and ramrod straight her steps were awkward and she had a frown on her face, Lily on the other hand was the picture of youthful exuberance, she was practically skipping — even if she was still firmly attached to Severine’s arm, her posture was relaxed and she had a determined look on her small face.

Eileen was happy to see they were such good friends, despite and even because of all of the things that made them different and she hoped nothing aver came between them.

When they arrived at Ollivander’s shop she immediately heard the old man’s strange greeting: “Eileen Prince, 10 inches, vine wood, unicorn hair…” She looked at him and instead of trying to follow whatever the train of thought the old wizard seemed to be concentrated on, she gently nudged the girls forward and introduced them; “Mr Ollivander, this is my daughter Severine Prince, and her friend, Lily Evans, they’re starting Hogwarts on September and need to get their wands”

She stepped back and was again thankful for Lily’s extravert personality, she would definitely be a good friend for her daughter and she’d help her step out of her shell.

She stood, as she watched the man at work, measuring Lily’s arm and head, mumbling to himself as he retrieved a few wands from different piles, the first one Lily tried was made of Holly and had a phoenix feather core, it didn’t even twitch and Lily’s face fell a little. Next she tried a hawthorn wood one, with dragon heartstrings in the core, it sputtered pitifully but nothing else happened, and Lily’s face became worried, apparently children still thought this would be immediate, she remembered being their age and thinking the same. Finally, Ollivander grabbed carefully a long blue box, inside it had a willow wood wand, it was a quarter of an inch longer than the previous ones — which had both been ten inches long, and had unicorn hair in the core; when Lily grabbed it she started giggling and golden sparks erupted from the tip, meaning that this was the wand Lily was meant to have.

Next was Severine, who Eileen could still see was nervous and that it was pure determination that kept her from bolting outside of the shop. Her poor baby was so worried about the measurements Mr Ollivander was taking she didn’t even notice when the man came with even more wands than the ones he had tried with Lily. First he had her try the same ones her friend had already tried but nothing happened, she also tried an Ebony wand with Thestral hair — that Mr Ollivander had confessed to not have manufactured himself but that sometimes he made orders for other wand makers to send him some of their wands to be sure to have a good repertoire; that one was no good for Severine though, and Eileen had never appreciated safety wards as much as she did the moment the wand had exploded, it wasn’t fatal or anything but it did send many other wands flying. Finally, after having tried five different ones, Ollivander went back and took a birch wood wand, it was ten and a half inches long, and it had dragon heartstrings in its core, Eileen watched as Severine took it in her small hand and her face became flushed in delight, the wand didn’t produce any sparks though, it made Severine glow from the inside, it was truly the most beautiful thing Eileen had ever seen, and she let out the breath she hadn’t known she was holding.

After paying Mr Ollivander for both wands, Eileen took both girls to Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour to wait for the time to take Lily back to her parents.

#######################################

Sirius Black was eating ice cream with James and his mum, they had waited until today to do their school shopping because they wanted to see all the people and Sirius was sure James also wanted to be seen. He didn’t know what had possessed him to dare James to eat the largest ice cream they sold — which were  five scoops _the size of his fists_ , and whoever finished last would have to pay for both. Sirius had already eaten two of his _Utter Peanut Butter Clutter_ and James was about halfway through his third scoop of _Cookie Dough_ ice cream when he saw her.

It was the girl from Madam Malkin’s!   At first he had not seen her, occupied as he was listening to James prattle on and on about the girl with the red head that was staring at the dress robes on the display of the store and of course when they had both run out so that James could catch a better look at her _—“She looks like a doll Sirius, and I don’t even like dolls but she looks pretty!”_ It was already too late, for as they pushed the door open the _other_ girl staring at the shop fell on her bum with a pained yelp.

Sirius had wanted to apologise but James told him not to as the red headed girl was glaring at their backs and that it would be better for the two of them to act as if they hadn’t noticed. James hadn’t counted on his mum seeing everything and grabbing them by their arms before dragging them away. Sirius had cast one look at the girls, they were smaller than him — they were even smaller than _James_! The taller of the two had wavy, black hair, it fell to her ribcage and her face was also really pretty; her eyes were big and black, they had the same shape does’ eyes did, they were surrounded by long thick lashes and topped by softly arched eyebrows, her nose was a little on the big side of the scale but he thought it looked good on her, and her lips were pink and kind of thin, but they looked really soft _“Huh”_ he thought, _“James thinks the red head looks like a doll, well, she looks like a prettier doll to me!”_

Just as he reached this conclusion he saw James was now starting on his fourth scoop and decided to think about girls later, sure there would be many more at Hogwarts, and started shovelling his peanut butter ice cream into his mouth like he had never eaten ice cream before — and he _almost_ won too!

#######################################

Severine and Lily were looking excitedly at the ice cream parlour, Severine’s mum had told them she would pick a really good ice cream flavour for each of them and sent them looking for a table, unfortunately there were too many people and the best tables had already been taken, so the girls ended up taking one that was right in front of a table that had two boys shovelling ice cream into their mouths and missing half of the times, the were accompanied by a woman Severine recognised from before, they were the boys from Madam Malkin’s shop!

Her heart started beating fast and she was feeling suddenly nervous not knowing why, she made a soft surprised sound and grabbed Lily, changing their places on the table to turn their faces away from the two boys. Severine didn’t know what was wrong with her, she thought the boys were silly and she almost giggled when she saw their ice cream covered faces, but she also thought it was a little bit — okay, more than a little bit, gross of them to be doing that.

She had seen boys before, of course she had, but she had always thought they looked silly and that they might have cooties, these two boys however were the first wizard boys she had ever seen, and even if she had to admit the smaller one _did_ look a little silly and his head looked like a hairy pincushion, the other one looked like the princes from her books, even his hair was long and with soft curls! His eyes were grey and his skin looked really soft… She didn’t know what was wrong with her but she would have liked to look at him even with his face half-covered in ice cream.

#######################################

Lily thought seeing Severine trying on robes and whining that she didn’t want to keep on doing it any more had been funny, well, a red-faced and fidgeting Severine was even more amusing; “Hey, Sev, why are you so nervous?” She asked trying — and failing, to look innocent. Severine jumped on her chair and turned to face her, still flushed “I- I don’t know what you’re talking about” Lily was about to open her mouth once more to tease her best friend but just as she thought of the perfect comment to make, Mrs Prince came back with a tray hovering in front of her.

She was handed a pink cup with two scoops of pink ice cream with some bright red spots and what appeared to be cookies in it; “Strawberry cheesecake” Mrs Prince explained and she started eating happily, keeping an eye on Severine whose cheeks were only a faint pink by now and who was also eating from a pink cup what appeared to be caramel ice cream.

Lily turned around and saw the boys had already left, but as she turned back, she saw Severine trying to look back but not finding a way to do so without giving herself away, she gave up.

When they were done, Lily was taken back to the entrance of the Leaky Cauldron, where her parents soon picked her up and agreed upon seeing Eileen and Severine at King’s Cross on September 1st.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ice cream flavours are all from Ben & Jerry's, my favourite ones ever!  
> Chapter title comes from the song by foals, I decided I'm pants at choosing titles and as the work's title is a song by Chvrches I'm now going to use the song I was listening to when I started writing each chapter as their title, so in case you don't have any music to listen to... well, now you do.  
> Usual disclaimer of grammar and spelling because English is not my first language.


	5. Chapter Four: Spellwork

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get on the train. Sirius' mouth is too big.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're still not mine.

Chapter 4: Spellwork

Severine was waiting nervously outside the muggle entrance to platform 9 ¾ she and her mum were waiting for Lily and her parents to arrive. They had agreed to meet at a half past nine so that they had enough time to say their goodbyes, sort out their trunks, _and hopefully_ find a compartment. It was still early, Mr Evans was a very punctual man, the problem was that Severine was so nervous about everything she had ended up convincing her mum to arrive extra early, just in case, that meant they arrived at King’s Cross at nine in the morning.

Severine was pacing, why couldn’t Lily arrive earlier? She knew she would not arrive late on purpose but hadn’t she seen all the people from yesterday? Oh, they were going to end up in different compartments or maybe Severine had missed Lily, what with all the muggles and muggle-borns, and even the half-bloods like herself, the platform was swarming with people and Severine had probably lost her chance to show her friend to the platform and now she was going to end up sitting all by herself!  
################################

Lily had miraculously convinced her dad to leave the house a little earlier than they had planned the night before, she and her parents had gone straight to King’s Cross right after dropping Tuney off at her new school — it was a pretty one, and they only admitted girls, which she thought was amazing because boys were a nuisance half of the time. And so she convinced her father or arriving early, even despite his protests of how being on time was better than arriving before the other party and having to wait; which made Lily huff because she knew Severine and she knew that it was likely she had already arrived.

True to form as they made their way to the platform at 9:15 Severine was already fidgeting and Mrs Prince was looking at her with eyes filled with a little annoyance and more than a little fondness, _“oh, Sev_ ” Lily thought, _“you need to calm down”_ and as she thought of that, she decided to help her friend become more relaxed or else she might get a heart disease at a young age — which was _not_ acceptable.

Lily called her friend’s name and saw the taller girl’s face light up, silly Sev, she had probably already thought of the worst case scenario —Lily was curious to know if anyone had died in that scenario but she didn’t want to be morbid so she kept her questions to herself.

Mrs Prince then proceeded to grab the trolley with Severine’s trunk and told both girls and Lily’s parents that they only needed to walk right into the brick column that was someplace between platforms ten and nine. Lily’s eyes went wide as Mrs Prince strode right into the wall and disappeared, it was almost as incredible as when professor McGonagall had touched the bricks in the wall that was the entrance to Diagon Alley — _magical!_

Lily’s parents looked at her nervously, obviously not knowing whether to follow after Mrs Prince or staying as they were, there was a guard eyeing them curiously and he approached and asked what they were doing, Lily’s parents then told him how they were there to see their daughter off to school but didn’t know if muggles would be able to cross to the other side. The guard told them that he would allow them to cross but that they had to come back outside in fifteen minutes, her parents thanked him and both girls crossed the barrier with Lily’s mum and dad following close behind.

When they made it to the other side, Lily saw a blond boy; he was significantly older than both her and Severine, maybe five years or something like that, he was staring right back at them, and not in a good way, he had an arrogant expression on his face and he seemed to think that both girls were beneath him, which made Lily wonder if there was a way to magically remove someone’s face entirely.

################################

Severine was holding on to Lily’s hand, she looked at her mum —whose face was lit with wonder and had a sad expression, as if her memories were overwhelming her, she thought it was fine because her mum hadn’t been to any of these places since before Severine was born and she wondered if they had changed a lot or if they remained the same as from the time her mum was also in school.

Lily and her parents on the other hand, seemed to have the same expression she did, they were staring at everything, their eyes darting from one spot to the other, trying to commit everything to their memories but also trying to see _everything._ Not for the first time, Severine was glad that she and Lily were in this together; otherwise she knew she’d be looking silly all alone.

Lily’s parents took her aside to say goodbye and her mum did the same for her, both girls were being held tightly by their parents and they both promised to write home frequently, Severine knew her mum wouldn’t let her live it down if she went by more than a week without sending a letter home.

Eileen helped the girls sort out their trunks and then she and Lily’s parents turned and made their way out of the platform.

When Severine turned to look at her friend, Lily had a mischievous glint in her eyes and Severine was both excited and scared to know what it would entail for her. She was still pondering on whether going along with whatever it was Lily had planned or beg to stay out of it when the giggling read head intertwined their fingers and started sprinting towards the train, leaving Severine to follow or fall flat on her face — not a hard choice, really.

Since it was still early, the girls managed to find a nice compartment, it was way bigger than a couple of tiny first years needed but it certainly didn’t matter to either of them, besides Severine was sure that with Lily’s personality whoever dared and take this place away from them would be sorely disappointed. And she was proven right when a few minutes later an older boy with short hair and so wide Severine was sure she and Lily would have to join arms to be able to surround him tried to physically remove them from their places, well they stayed right as they were part thanks to Lily’s efforts and to a tall blond who sneered at them but told the other boy they could find their own compartment without having to step foot inside one that was probably already spoiled — the arrogant pillock!

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It was almost 11 o’clock and Sirius was beyond angry, of course, with Mrs Potter taking them to the station they wouldn’t have to worry about being late but still, how long could he take to figure out what to wear? Whatever it was would end up covered by their robes anyway.

Now they wouldn’t have a proper place to sit and would end up having to share with some unpleasant creature, like Avery or, _God forbid,_ Mulciber — just the thought of it made Sirius shiver in disgust, those two were the absolute worst!

When James was finally ready it was 10:50 which meant they would have to rush to the station and to make things worse, Sirius didn’t understand how James could take _so long_ in getting ready but have his hair looking like an angry hedgehog; he supposed it was a family curse, seeing as Mr Potter seemed to have similar hair, Sirius despaired for James’ children.

They made their way to the platform and managed to put their trunks in order just as the train started to whistle, Sirius turned to give his best friend a dark look but James took it in stride and gave him a cheeky grin just before darting away towards the train, but since Sirius was taller and had longer legs he managed to outrun him and as James hopped on the train Sirius flicked his forehead and told him that if they ended up sharing with some dolt it would be his fault.

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James pouted but grabbed Sirius by the arm and tugged him along to make him _shut up_ , he was his best friend and James was sure they were someway related, Sirius had a tendency to let his temperament get the best of him — unlike himself, really, James was the coolest kid you’d ever meet and he took everything in stride and he was awesome and very good looking, even if sometimes he and his mum were the only ones to see it.

James was getting tired and more than a little bit anxious, they had already searched half the train for a good place to sit down and he was sure Sirius' mutterings were all about him and how it was his fault they couldn’t get a good compartment — so much drama for a person their age, honestly. He was getting discouraged and had even started considering sharing with _Nott_ of all people when they arrived at an almost empty one and he stopped dead in his tracks.

They were the girls from Diagon Alley! He took a moment to laugh evilly to himself, he had noticed Sirius staring at the black haired girl, she was pretty enough, he thought, but how could he even consider looking at her when the red head was like an _angel!?_ —it was just fine, he realised, because Sirius would be so busy trying to impress the taller of the two girls and so he would leave his girl alone, yes, the red headed girl with the greenest eyes he had ever seen was going to be his wife and they would be just like his own mum and dad, and they’d have a son as awesome as himself, he could already see it happening.

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Severine and Lily were talking about the classes they were looking forwards to the most when their compartment door was opened; Severine was ready to stop Lily from hitting whoever it was with the heavy book she had on her hands when one of the boys from Diagon Alley cleared his throat and asked Lily if they could joined them, Severine was confused _“what does he mean ‘_ we _’? I don’t see anyone with him”;_ and of course that was the moment the _other_ boy from the alley made his presence known “ _it can only happen to me”_ she thought miserably as her cheeks turned pink —oh, blast her pale complexion! Even the smallest of blushes was so obvious she wanted to scream.

The boys stepped inside and closed the door behind them, the small one with the funny looking hair said his name was James Potter and proceeded to stare at Lily in a way Severine found a little unnerving, what was wrong with him? He was just as pink as she had been a few seconds ago and if it weren’t because Lily was too busy staring at her own pink cheeks and no doubt preparing a lengthy interrogation for later Severine was sure James would have found his wild hair pressed down by _Hogwarts: A History_.

The taller one — Severine refused to acknowledge her previous statement of him looking like the princes from her books, introduced himself as Sirius Black and extended his hand, Severine took it reluctantly, afraid her own hands might be sweaty from the nervousness this boy inspired in her, and her stomach was doing the weirdest things, she thought she might be coming down with something, it was all so mortifying!

################################

Sirius was going to kill James. Painfully and slowly. He had been sure nothing could be worse than his best friend telling him they should settle and share with _Nott_ , of all people, well he had been wrong and now he really wanted to go back and beg Nott to forgive him for the time he had called him a tit and swear he’d be his willing slave for a week. It was too late, James had, as always, jumped right into a situation that would make Sirius awkward — and by now he was an expert in awkwardness, just last week Regulus had dug his old photos from their mum’s trunk and there was one of a baby Sirius stark naked wiggling his bottom, Reg had shown the photos to Bella and now everyone in the family was calling him “ _sweet cheeks_ ”, it had been the most uncomfortable moment in his life and still he would happily live it again if that meant they didn’t have to share with these girls!

The red headed one accepted James petition for them to travel to school together and as he stepped inside and closed the door after him he saw James looking at the smaller girl with puppy eyes and in turn the girl — Lily Evans, she had said, looking at the prettier of the two with amusement shining in the green eyes. His eyes then made their way to the tall, willowy girl and her cheeks were a fainter shade of pink from the one James sported proudly all over his face — that treacherous prat, she introduced herself as Severine Prince as she shook his hand, he was worried she’d notice his sweaty palms but she didn’t seem to mind; her name was weird but still pretty and it fitted her just right, he thought. His father sometimes talked about doing business with the Prince Head of House, was he her dad?

################################

After a few minutes of awkward silence Lily asked the boys if they knew what house they wanted to be sorted in and all hell broke loose.

It was all going well until Sirius said all Slytherins were rotten and every dark or evil wizard in recorded history had come from that house. Severine looked as if she was going to cry, she told him she wanted to be in Slytherin because all of her family had come from that house and Sirius scoffed and told her that she should know better. He said that all of the Blacks had also been in Slytherin but that he was going to break that _curse_ and he’d be in Gryffindor, right next with his best friend James.

Lily was torn, one part of her thought Sirius was being mean to Sev because he wanted her to be in the same house as him, but honestly, Lily and Sev had already agreed on staying friends no matter what house they ended up at. Another part of her wanted to throw Sirius off the window, because really who was so dumb as to believe that being mean to girls would make them want to be friends with you?! And the smallest part of her was a little bit afraid for her friend, what if what Sirius was saying was true and Sev ended up having bad house mates?

She decided to end up Black’s tirade on how everything Slytherin was bad news by defending her friend “I’m sorry to interrupt” she said, not feeling the least bit sorry “but I’ve met my friend’s mum and her grandparents and they are the nicest people besides my family, they even taught me how to be a witch!”

################################

Sirius knew his mouth was running away from him — yet again, but he didn’t want Severine to end up in a house full of bad people, what if she also turned bad? He couldn’t let that happen! But as he saw the sad look on her face his brain shut down and he kept talking about how Slytherins, at least the ones he knew were all bad, with the exception of James’ mum, she was kind of okay.

He was a little bit surprised to find out that the Evans girl was a muggle-born, last time he checked the Princes were as pure-blooded as they came and he didn’t know how a pure-blood girl would be friends with a muggle-born, he’d have to investigate.

He was going to apologise to Severine for his mean comments when the girl seemed to compose herself and declared for them all to hear “Well, it’s a good thing I want to be sorted to Slytherin for _brains_ and not for looks, I don’t care if you think they’re ‘bad news’, I know my family and I will be happy to follow our tradition” her voice was harsh but her eyes were full of hurt, as if Sirius’ comments had really shaken her up. He felt his temper flare and his mouth once again started moving without his consent “Oh, it’s nice you know you have brains, seeing as you don’t have the _looks_ to go anywhere else”, he wanted to apologise as soon as those words were out of his mouth but nothing good enough came to mind, even James had stopped agreeing with him some time ago and by the looks Lily was sending him, he knew he had gone too far.

He settled for huffing in annoyance and sitting back down. He would have to find a way to make it up to her and to learn how to keep his temper in check. He had just ruined the rest of his day and it seemed he had also ruined hers.

################################

Remus Lupin had arrived on the platform with just enough time to jump on the train, his trunk was trailing behind him — his dad had charmed it for it to be able to follow his son, it was a good thing too seeing as he had barely made it on time and he wouldn’t have been able to put it wherever trunks were put.

He was looking for a place to sit but some of the kids looked very unfriendly, he was almost on the verge of giving up when he heard a loud male voice screaming at a girl she wasn’t pretty enough, Remus, being ever the gentleman her mum had told him he should be, strode in the direction the fight seemed to be coming from.

He arrived at a compartment with two girls and two boys, one red headed girl who was looking angrily at a long haired boy and holding onto a tall, black haired girl, the black haired girl’s face was flushed and her eyes were examining the floor as if it were the most interesting thing she had ever seen.

The long haired boy seemed to be frustrated about something and there was a short boy with spiky hair whose eyes were darting nervously from one person to another, his hands were nervously trying to smooth down his hair —poor kid didn’t know he was only making it worse for himself, and looking very much like he didn’t want to be there.

Four sets of eyes turned on him, apparently they hadn’t noticed he was standing there until he cleared his throat “I heard something about an ugly girl, I think I missed her because the girls in here seem to be really pretty” he said with a small smile on his lips, glad he did not have to lie because he was a terrible liar.

Both girls blushed, though the taller one seemed to get pinker than her red headed friend, good! He was going to make sure nobody made them upset; there was something about these girls that made him feel a sort of kinship, as if they were smaller cousins he had to protect. This seemed to put the boys on edge though, the smaller one demanded to know who he was so he introduced himself to the four of them. It was curious that the taller boy from the two he had just met eyed him suspiciously, even with a hint of warning but he paid him no mind. He didn’t care for fights, he just wanted a place to sit down and now he also wanted to make sure nobody hurt his new friends, they were both so small he thought they wouldn’t even be able to jump down from the train without a little help.

################################

Sirius didn’t understand what he was feeling, this Severine girl had become a source of annoyance to him, making him feel all sort of things he didn’t understand: first the butterflies from when he saw her smile at him, then the pain of knowing he had hurt her, but the worst of all was this new sensation, he felt like he was going to be sick and he had to bite his lips and clench his fists to keep from doing something reckless, after all, this Lupin boy hadn’t done anything to him — but then why did he feel even worse than that time James had taken his toy broom and refused to give it back?

Of course he had wanted for Severine to stop being sad, of course he wanted her to smile again, but _he_ wanted to be the one to make her smile. He didn’t know what to do, he just knew that he would have to fight whatever feelings Severine inspired in him, do the opposite and in time, he was sure they would go away.

He spent the rest of the way trying to listen to whatever it was this Lupin character was saying to both girls and avoiding James' attempts at trying to start a new conversation. This was going to be a long trip.

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Severine had been so sad to listen to Sirius Black’s opinions of herself, she knew she was not as pretty as Lily or the princesses of her books, none of the pretty girls she had ever seen had a nose as big as hers. She was about to cry when a boy even _taller_ than Black opened the door to their compartment and cleared his throat.

She didn’t know boys her age could be so tall, he also didn’t look silly and had brown shaggy hair, not as bad as Potter’s but still in what seemed to be a permanent state of disarray, and his eyes were green, not as bright as Lily’s but his stare was still kind and warm. He even went as far as to say that she was in the same category as Lily — the pretty girls. She knew he was just trying to be nice so she didn’t protest.

She and Lily spent the rest of the trip to school talking quietly about their houses; she was happy when he told her Slytherin would be a good house for her and that he was sure she would make her family proud.

She decided then, that he and Lily would be her best friends, the only ones she needed, Potter was okay, but after the things Black had said she wasn’t sure she wanted to keep on talking to him, she was sad about it, but whatever it was she had been feeling for Black, she would put it behind her, she was a Prince and she would not let anyone make her feel sad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter I started writing with Austra's song by the same name, funnily enough when I finished the same song started playing.  
> I wanted to fit their sorting in this chapter but I couldn't :(


	6. Chapter Five: Pages of Gold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's sorting time, not everyone gets what they want.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not killing them, so that must be prove enough that they're not mine.  
> I'm my own beta reader, so this might be crap.

Chapter 5: Pages of Gold

Severine was happy to have Remus on the same compartment as them, the whole business of her sorting had her agitated, she was torn between her loyalty to her family, that would place her immediately in Slytherin and her thirst for knowledge and meeting people as committed to learning as she was, which she knew she would only find in Ravenclaw.

She didn’t really know what would be the best for her, she had only been told that people at Slytherin were cunning, she wasn’t even sure what that meant and in fact she didn’t think someone could only be either one of the traits the houses represented — in her opinion, you had to be very brave to truly be loyal, how could any of those characteristics be enough on its own?

She decided to stop worrying about things she couldn’t change, she was only sure that Lily, James and Sirius would all be Gryffindors, because honestly, anyone could see Lily was really brave and both James and Sirius seemed to be reckless and stubborn enough to get themselves into Gryffindor — which had some traces of Slytherin cunning all over.

She and Lily spent the rest of the way trying to get to know their new friend a little better, it turned out his mum was a muggle — just like her daddy and Lily’s parents! And _his dad_ , his dad worked for the ministry and it had something to do with _ghosts!_ He had called them _non-human spirituous apparitions_ , but still, **_ghosts_**! She had never seen one, and Remus claimed to have never seen one either but she still asked as many questions as she could about them.

At some point of the journey Severine had fallen asleep, and Lily woke her up by tapping softly on her forehead, Severine could sleep almost through anything but for some reason, having people touch her face always woke her up — and having someone playing with her hair would put her to sleep in no time.

As she woke up Lily informed her she had to put on her school robes and she did so hurriedly, just now noticing the small silver crown her mum had ordered to be sewn right over the vines of her name tag, she was happy to have that small symbol of her family — she _was_ a Prince and princes wear crowns.

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Sirius was _not_ pouting, thank you very much! And if James made another comment on how this _Remus_ kid was so amazing and how the Prince girl seemed to be so excited, talking to him about whatever it was they were discussing he would _continue not_ pouting, it was a very childish action and Sirius was on his way to becoming a _man_.

Well _, Remus_ couldn’t have been so interesting because as soon as Lily started playing with the other girl's hair she fell asleep, _”oh look at that!”_ he thought happily _“he just put her to sleep”._ He refused to admit how happy he was for what he perceived to be a small victory, even someone as _nice_ as _Remus_ hadn’t been able to keep Severine Prince interested, he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up with her — _not that he cared_.

And as she fell asleep, Remus turned to look at both himself and James, his gaze was heavy and made Sirius nervous _“now what did I do?”_ he thought annoyed — with James’ ability to make him bend to his will, with Lily Evans’ angry glares, with Severine Prince’s very existence, and mostly with himself.

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Remus saw his new friend fall asleep, she was an extremely nice person and she was also very curious, he tried to give her as much information as he could on **_Non-Human Spirituous Apparitions_** , which she kept calling ghosts and he got a feeling the girl might not be as suited to Slytherin as she thought, well that would surely be solved when they got sorted.

He then turned to look at the two other occupants of their compartment, the long-haired boy had been awfully quiet since he had started talking to the girls, and surely he couldn’t dislike Severine so much as to be completely silent if he wasn’t fighting with her, right?

Well, he would find out later. He kept talking to Lily, with the occasional input from James Potter — who seemed to get pink in the face every time Lily agreed with him and they passed the time like this until the moment came for them to get their robes on, they had almost arrived at the school!

When Severine was awake again she seemed a little bit nervous, so Lily started talking to her about the Giant Squid that supposedly lived in the lake, Severine was looking forward to seeing it but Lily thought it was just a flashy name and the thing might not be as big as the book said.

He helped the girls off the train and they all followed the booming voice — whose owner had a thick northern accent they had a bit of trouble discerning, calling for the first years. They were met by a huge man who then led them towards some tiny boats that had enough room for only four people, he decided he would get on the same boat as the two boys they had shared a compartment with and separated himself from his friends, who looked at him with small pouts but proceeded to get on a boat of their own.

He found James and Sirius sitting on a boat with a small boy, he was chubby and he had mousy brown hair, he seemed to be terrified because his blue eyes kept zooming from one place to the other, as if someone was going to attack him and Remus felt both sad and a little bit put-off by him. Well, he wasn’t here for that boy; he needed to stop Black from acting like a prat, lest he hurt his new friend.

“So, Sirius, why don’t you like Severine? I think she is a nice girl” — okay, maybe he wasn’t subtle but he didn’t know how long the boats would take to get to the school.

“Oh, I don’t think that’s a real question, what I want to know is why you seem to _like,_ like her” Sirius countered — oh, so it was one of those cases, his dad had already told him that someday he’d find a girl he’d like and he would act like a fool, it seemed that such days arrived differently for different people and it also seemed that realisation didn’t come together with those feelings, interesting.

“Well, I just like her as a _friend,_ you know? Same as I would like either of you” he laughed and was surprised to see the chubby boy look at him with wide eyes. “So you just like her as a _friend?!_ ” Sirius’ tone had somehow managed to sound demented, relieved — and a little like he thought Remus was crazy for only liking Severine as a friend, when asking that question, and Remus couldn’t keep the amusement from his voice when he answered “yes, I just like her as a friend”.

James started laughing and told Sirius to stop acting like a dimwit and the rest of the boat ride to the castle went by much more smoothly after that.

################################

Lily and Severine ended up riding the boat with just one girl more, her name was Lucinda Talkalot and her last name was eerily fitting for her, Lily wanted to scream in frustration at being unable to properly interrogate her best friend.

Lucinda seemed to have an uncanny ability to make words come out of her mouth without actually saying anything and the boat ride seemed to drag on longer than it should have. When they reached the castle she was surprised to see Remus talking animatedly with both James and Black, she didn’t actually _mind_ James, he was just a regular boy, she supposed; but after the initial excitement had died down and Black had shown his bad side she wasn’t sure she wanted to have anything to do with him.

She grabbed Severine’s hand — the girl seemed to be thankful for being taken away from Ms Talkalot, and tugged her towards their friend. Remus gave them a bright smile and they smiled right back at him, Lily could see Black’s face and he had a weird look, like he also wanted to smile but was determined not to — Lily was starting to think he might just be crazy and they followed the giant man towards the entrance hall.

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 _“So this is what a real castle looks like”_ Severine thought as she stared in awe at her surroundings, she still wouldn’t have _her_ white castle demoted to a house, well, at least not out loud. She would have felt awkward with the fact that Remus seemed to be on good terms with Black if she weren’t so in thrall of everything around her — besides, the sight of the castle had made even Lucinda shut her mouth, or maybe she had her mouth hanging open like James, but everyone had stopped talking and that was what counted. The giant left them standing in front of an enormous wooden door and some whispers and murmurs could be heard, nothing too loud to disrupt the atmosphere that seemed to have taken hold of the children.

The doors opened, startling everyone and out came a stern looking, middle aged woman, she had the air of someone who would not tolerate rule breaking or unruly behaviour, she was also really beautiful and Lily told her that she was deputy Headmistress McGonagall, well, she definitely seem to fit her title.

She led the children to the other side of the door and the silence from before turned into “oohs” and “ahhs” as the kids discovered the enchanted ceiling — _of course_ Severine had already read all about it in _Hogwarts: A History_  but... still, actually seeing it was very different from reading about the magic used to create it.

They arrived at the front of the room and there right in the centre of a dais — in front of a table that seemed to be designated for the school’s staff; stood a stool with an old looking hat on top of it.

Severine was wondering how they would get sorted when the hat started singing!

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 _A thousand years or more ago_  
when I was newly sewn,   
there lived four wizards of renown,   
whose names are still well known:   
  
Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor,   
fair Ravenclaw, from glen,   
sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad,   
shrewd Slytherin, from fen.  
  
They shared a wish, a hope, a dream;   
they hatched a daring plan  
to educate young sorcerers  
thus Hogwarts School began.  
  
Now each of these four founders  
formed their own house, for each  
did value different virtues  
in the ones they had to teach.  
  
By Gryffindor, the bravest were  
prized far beyond the rest;   
for Ravenclaw, the cleverest  
would always be the best;   
  
For Hufflepuff, hard workers were  
most worthy of admission;   
and power-hungry Slytherin  
loved those of great ambition.  
  
While still alive they did divide  
their favourites from the throng,   
yet how to pick the worthy ones  
when they were dead and gone?  
  
Twas Gryffindor who found the way,   
he whipped me off his head  
the founders put some brains in me  
so I could choose instead!  
  
Now slip me snug about your ears,   
I've never yet been wrong,   
I'll have a look inside your mind  
and tell where you belong!

###############################

When the hat finished its song, Severine saw as the professor took a roll of parchment from somewhere within her robes and she called a name   
“Abbot, Aaron!” she announced clearly and for everyone to hear, a tall blond boy with brown eyes made his way to the small stool and everyone waited to see what would happen next. She could see him muttering to himself, after about a minute the hat shouted “HUFFLEPUFF!” and the table Severine now identified as the Hufflepuff one erupted in cheers while the rest of the hall clapped politely.

She was nervous of getting into Slytherin now, every time a boy or girl got sorted in that house the Gryffindors would “boo” them and the Slytherins wouldn’t do more than clap politely and look disinterested and bored by the whole thing, on top of that, the ugly older kid from before and the blond one were seated at that table! When it was Black’s turn she actually got nervous for him, what if he got sorted to Slytherin? He would be so sad and besides, she could not see him sitting in the same table as those mean boys she had unfortunately encountered on the train.

Black was actually getting angry at the hat, and it took a little bit longer than it had with some other kids, but still it finally announced Black would be going into Gryffindor, she let out a sigh of relief she hoped had gone unnoticed, but as Lily’s hold on her hand tightened fractionally she knew she hadn’t quite managed.

Severine was a bit sad to see both of her friends and even Potter going to Gryffindor, she didn’t want to be separated from them but she also didn’t think a house filled with people as loud as Gryffindors seemed to be would suit her at all.

Time seemed to slow down as professor McGonagall called “Prince, Severine”, she made her way to the front of the hall, her legs felt heavy and her movements were slow, she was sure everyone was staring at her and hoping she would just _hurry up_ but she couldn’t.

Professor McGonagall took the hat and when Severine was seated on the stool, she placed the hat on her head, she instantly felt a strange presence in her head, and a voice then said **_“I see you have great potential Ms Snape”_** Severine was confused the hat had guessed her previous name, as far as she knew only Lily knew her daddy’s last name. “I’m a Prince now” she muttered, the voice in her head laughed softly and replied **_“Yes, I see, and as a Prince do you want to follow family tradition?”_** the question was a heavy one and Severine didn’t know how to feel about it “I don’t want to disappoint my mum or my grandparents” she said sadly, the hat laughed yet again **_“oh, do not fret, child, if I remember Eileen Prince correctly she will be happy if you are”_** but that was the problem, Severine didn’t know _what_ would make her happy, she told the hat how she was torn between wanting to follow in her mum’s footsteps, wanting to stay close to her friends, and her thirst for knowledge, the hat _cackled_ inside her head and told her it would give her a chance of keeping her friends but making new ones as well, she was starting to ask what it meant when it shouted merrily “RAVENCLAW!”

Severine didn’t know what to think, she would be in a house no one would make fun of her if she wanted to have her face stuck in a book all day but she wasn’t sure how she would tell her mum, despite the hat’s reassurances, there was not knowing her mum’s reaction until after it happened.

The Ravenclaws were cheering for her and when she sat down she could see Lily and Remus cheering for her as well, even Potter seemed to be somewhat happy that she was now with the Ravens and Black had a weird look on his face, she didn’t know what it was about.

She was sitting right next to a blond boy who had long white hair and his blue eyes seemed to be staring at something that wasn’t even there, she didn’t quite know what to make of him but as he turned and started talking to her about some magical creatures she had never heard of she silently thanked the hat for having put her away from the Talkalot girl — who had just been sorted and was making her way to the Slytherin table.

###############################

Sirius Black gave a sigh of relief, he had been watching with badly concealed anxiousness as the Prince girl got sorted, for some reason he _really_ didn’t want her to be in Slytherin, the hat seemed to take a bit longer than what it had with James, not as long as it had taken with that Peter whatshisname, but still, he was glad she was in Ravenclaw, he knew she would be fine there.

His left ear had been completely damaged by Evans and Remus’ extremely enthusiastic and **_loud_** cheering and from the corner of his eye he could see James’ small smile, he was staring at the Ravenclaw table and he saw Severine sitting next to a white haired _boy_ and he felt once more that unpleasant sensation that accompanied the image of Severine talking to other boys, just then her gaze met his and he didn’t want to think how his first year at Hogwarts had already turned out to be way more complicated than what he had expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's song is by Flo Morrissey. It's a really nice song. I'm typing the notes before typing the actual chapter, so I might be surprised by Sev's sorting.  
> I'm kind of working on picking songs for specific chapters, i.e.: The first kiss song and stuff like that, I've come to realise this whole listening to music while writing is really helpful to set the mood. The point of me telling you this is that if you have any suggestions for a song in combination with a pairing from this weird universe I'm trying to build, I guess I can make some sort of ficlets for them... You'd have to choose your wanted rating and their school year as well, just so I know what sort of thing you might want to read. Which would be good to help me exercise my writing muscles ;)  
> \+ I used the Sorting Hat's song from 1994, for two main reasons 1) I'm an unimaginative dolt and 2) I don't really like the one from 1991 ;)


	7. Chapter Six: Youth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A slight jump in time. Sirius' green eyed monster is a huge one.  
>  _We are the reckless,_  
>  _We are the wild youth_  
>  _Chasing visions of our futures..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you bet on whether I own them or not, you would lose if you said I do.

Chapter 6: Youth.

Severine was really happy of having been sorted into Ravenclaw, after the initial nervousness about her mum’s reaction had faded — when she got a letter three days after getting settled at Hogwarts, she had finally relaxed into her dorm room, which she shared with two of the weirdest girls she had ever met, one of them had wild brown hair and wore glasses big as saucers, her name was Sybill, and the other one, Pandora, had blond hair and blue eyes which, funnily enough seemed to have a very similar expression to Xenophilius’.

Her Head of House was barely taller than Meeky but it was said that he was one of the best duellists of the Wizarding World — not just Britain, and he was also her charms professor,   and when Sirius Black had made fun of her for falling off her broom in first year, he had made a row of pasties dance just to make her feel better. She was sure he was the best out of the four Heads of House, McGonagall seemed too stern — which considering she had to keep people like James Potter and Black in check wasn’t a surprise; there was also Slughorn who kept giving weird looks to anyone coming from a rich family or showed a talent for potion making — she had heard from some fifth years that he hosted parties in which he kept rambling on and on about how many famous and influential people he knew and she was certainly dreading the thought of ever becoming a part of that club, maybe she could convince Lily to stay out of it with her; finally, professor Sprout was just… professor Sprout, she was always kind and all the Hufflepuffs respected her, but Severine had only ever been in contact with her while in class, so she didn’t have much of an opinion about the woman.

Her third year was starting and she’d finally have more classes with Lily, during the summer they had both decided to take Arithmancy and Ancient Runes as electives, which would put her far away enough from Black — who along with Potter had chosen Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies as their electives, she was dreading the day they found out about muggle music but she had enough time to prepare for that, Remus on the other hand seemed to have more sense than his choice of friends showed — well, at least the male ones, and had taken Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy, so they’d still had plenty of time together. Severine was glad that she could have all of her core classes with Xenophilius, who had become as close to her as Lily was, because with him taking Care of Magical Creatures and Divination as electives she wouldn’t get to spend as much time with him, even if she was sure that Pandora was part of the reason he had even considered Divination, but with Xeno’s personality she couldn’t be one hundred percent sure.

The thing that excited her the most, however, was that this was the year she and her friends could finally join the older students in their trips to Hogsmeade, she had heard so much about the village that she couldn’t wait to actually see more than just the glimpse they got when going from the train to the carriages that took them to the castle.

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Sirius was following James around the castle — he and Remus had finally resigned themselves to try and keep his foot out of his mouth when it came to Lily after a particularly nasty incident last year, in which James thought he was being charming but managed to insult Lily greatly and had been hit with a Tickling Charm so strong he had peed his pants and was the laughingstock of the whole school for weeks after that.

They were currently making their way to the library, presumably in the search — yet again, of Lily Evans, why they couldn’t just join Remus when he said he was going off with her and Prince to study, he didn’t know. _Prince,_ she was another source of constant frustration for Sirius, even bigger than the whole James and Lily debacle because even if hearing his best friend prattle about a girl with seemingly no desire to stop was bad, understanding why he wanted to do so was even worse. Not that he’d ever tell her, mind, he had kept firm in his resolution of acting the opposite of what he felt regarding Severine, so far his efforts were proving to be pitiful to say the least — he still felt bad for making fun of her after she fell off her broom and what was worse, he still fell relieved about the fact that Lovegood had no interest in her as anything other than friends, _as it should be._

He was so lost in thought he didn’t notice their arrival until it was too late, James had already asked both girls and Remus if they could join them in their studies and as all of them seemed to be well educated in muggle culture; James started bombarding them with questions about the workings of _telephones_ and _televisions_ , Sirius thought it was a pity magic didn’t mix well with those devices but Remus had already promised to show them the actual things during summer.

It was a weird thing, but Severine seemed to be even more shy than usual, her face had once again that slight tint of pink she got when he was being particularly annoying and she was angry at him and her eyes were glued to her Transfigurations book. He was about to tease her about it when he heard someone clearing their throat and when he looked up he saw Alexander Chang, a fifth year Ravenclaw, standing awkwardly behind Remus’ chair, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and looking intently at Severine _— what the hell is all that about?_ He thought, slightly bemused and very annoyed, he was about to ask it out loud too when Chang cleared his throat once again and Severine looked at him. The words that came out of Chang’s mouth had Sirius biting the inside of his cheek so hard, he could taste blood; “I — Severine, ah, that is, I was wondering if you would come with me to Hogsmeade next weekend?” Sirius didn’t think it possible but Severine’s whole face got so pink it glowed from her embarrassment as she opened and closed her mouth producing a series of squeaking sounds — that he most definitely _did not_ find endearing or adorable, much less in these circumstances, he was going to save the poor girl from her shame and deny Chang in her stead when Lily gave her very much unwanted input and told Chang to meet Severine in the entrance hall Saturday after breakfast, to which Chang responded with a smile towards Severine and sauntered off _as if he owned the place._

When he was gone Lily let out an extremely annoying squeal of delight and started gushing about what Severine was going to wear for her _date_ , and Sirius’ quill mysteriously snapped. Remus was giving him a knowing look while James was poorly concealing his laughter behind coughs, Severine’s face remained pink and she had a dreamy look on her face that he desperately wanted to wipe right off, Alexander Chang had managed to become in that single minute of his life Sirius’ arch nemesis and he vowed to thwart whatever plans he had for Severine.

################################

She had a date! Well, it was technically not a date, he hadn’t even said so explicitly and she refused to let her hopes up, or his for that matter, she didn’t know what had possessed Lily to accept in her stead with Sirius Black sitting _right there_ , after all, Lily knew how she felt about him perhaps better than even herself did. She was both giddy and terrified for next Saturday, well; Xenophilius might have something good to say on the matter.

As it turned out, Xeno did have a few words of choice for her, Severine wasn’t exactly sure how but he seemed to know more than he let on and told her that he wouldn’t be surprised if someone were to find her head infested with wrackspurts, which was something she had been in fear of happening ever since he first told her and Lily about them in their first year, so she followed his advice and thought as many happy thoughts as she could but for some reason the infestation didn’t seem to lessen any.

It was Wednesday when Alexander asked her to go with him to Hogsmeade, and still the following days seemed to drag on impossibly longer than they should and by Friday night she had worked herself into a panic, _what if she didn’t find something appropriate to wear? What if he thought she was silly? What if Black showed up — as he always did whenever she happened to be with a boy? What if he didn’t? What if he wanted to go to Madam Puddifoot’s? What if they didn’t find anything to talk about? What was he expecting?!_ As usual, she went to Lily and Remus with her concerns and the two of them told her to enjoy her time with Alexander and they would handle Sirius; however there was a glint in Lily’s eyes that she didn’t trust in the slightest.

################################

When Saturday came, Sirius was up and about earlier than the rest of the residents of the Gryffindor tower; he was at the great hall having breakfast even earlier than he did during the week, for no particular reason, obviously. Once he was done and seeing as he didn’t have anything else to do, he went to hang out by the entrance hall, just to wait for James of course.

He was bored out of his mind. He still didn’t know why he decided it had been a good idea to wake up so early on a Saturday morning when everyone else was obviously still asleep when he saw Alexander Chang fidgeting a few feet away from him, his gaze fixed on the opposite direction, obviously waiting for someone. A fifth year Ravenclaw girl — Meilin Xu, stopped and talked to him for a while before leaving for Hogsmeade _“interesting, wasn’t he supposed to meet Prince today?”_ he mused, though the idea of Chang being interested in a girl other than Severine seemed a great one, the thought of him going about it behind her back left him with a bitter taste in his mouth.

About ten minutes later, Severine came out, wearing casual robes of deep blue with silver trimmings, her hair was for once completely out of her face — in a messy pony tail that somehow managed to look different from the ones she wore for potions classes, like it was _supposed_ to look that way and wasn’t just a convenience, even her eyes looked different, he couldn’t quite point out what it was though, he supposed he would need to look closer. She approached Alexander and Sirius felt as if he couldn’t breathe right, this was one of the worst days of his life and he didn’t even fully understand why. Alexander offered her his arm and when she took it they left, Sirius glaring at the back of Chang’s head as if it had caused him great offence.

Sometime later, James arrived, accompanied by Remus and Lily, James was busy staring at Lily — Sirius noticed that whatever it was that had changed Severine’s eyes had also been used on her and if she was responsible for it, he didn’t know whether to be thankful to her or forbid her from ever doing it again; Remus was looking at him as if expecting Sirius to say or do something and Lily was giving him a knowing and calculating smirk; “So, Black… Severine looks quite pretty today, doesn’t she?” Lily broke the silence, there was a hint of smugness to her voice that confirmed Sirius’ suspicions, it had been _her_ idea to do **_that,_** “heh, I guess she looks a little different, I’m too used to her by now to really notice” he tried to sound disinterested, even bored, but by the grin Lily was now sporting he suspected he had not quite managed.

James, who had never been the patient kind, decided they had dilly-dallied enough, pulled him from the bench he was sitting on and — quite conveniently, grabbed Lily’s hand to then drag them towards the village, it wasn’t getting any earlier and they had many things to do and mischief to cause.

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Severine was really nervous, she had thought that with Alexander being in the same house as her things to talk about would be easy to come by, apparently she had been wrong. Oh, he was a very nice person and she reckoned they might even become friends or at the very least be on good terms with each other, but with every passing minute their differences seem to be growing ever stronger. At least he was nice, though she still felt a bit disappointed by the fact that he seemed to have more to talk about with Meilin Xu when they ran into her at _Dominic Maestro’s_ shop, well, she thought it made sense, they were after all in the same year and apparently the two of them had a talent for music.

They decided to go to the _Three Broomsticks_ , Meilin stayed behind at the music store and Severine felt a bit sad for them, there definitely was something going on between the two of them and while she could tell Alexander had been sincere when he had asked her to join him, she couldn’t help but wonder if he’d be happier with the other girl, after all she also had someone she would have rather spend the day with, even if he tended to be a berk. What a lovely way to kill time, drinking warm butterbeer and being miserable.

Just as they exited the Inn, Lily came running towards them, and asked Alexander if she could steal Severine away from him for the rest of the day, surprisingly enough, he seemed reluctant to let her go —she thought it might have something to do with the two of them being lonely together, huh, maybe there was hope for them to at least be in good terms after all, and after a little coercing and a small bribe in the form of two chocolate cauldrons he let the girls go off, when Severine looked back over her shoulder she could see him making his way to _Dominic Maestro’s_ shop and she cheered for him on the inside.

Severine was too distracted by Lily’s retelling of her previous activities that she didn’t even notice when they arrived at _Honey Dukes_ — apparently her friend had spent the day with Remus, James and Black going to _Zonko’s_ , where she had bought some hiccough sweets and _McHavelock’s Wizarding Headgear,_ there she had bought a blonde wig that James was proudly, if badly, sporting; some of his crazy hair peeking from all angles; Remus was collecting every sweet with the word “mice” on its name and James was busy trying to decide whether cockroach clusters or blood pops were a better choice to prank someone — figures. Black seemed to be entertained by the _Eyeball Bonanza_ and didn’t even notice there were people waiting for him to let them have a go at it. Severine and Lily decided to buy their own sweets to share later with them; Remus had already paid for his own, had even concealed them—the girls had come to know there was only one rule to being his friends: Remus doesn’t share food (or sweets), and was now waiting by the door to go on to the next store, James was paying for his own when Lily asked Severine to go get the biggest box she could find of Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, the sweet in question was _right next_ to the _Eyeball Bonanza_ and Severine felt dread creeping up her spine, the fact that her friend started snickering as soon as her back was turned should have set an alarm, but she didn’t think Lily would do something bad to her.

After she had finally managed to get the box of sweets she let a triumphant smirk form on her lips only to feel it banish as soon as she turned around, they had been abandoned! “Black”, she said, slightly shaking his arm “we’ve been left behind”, she let her voice rise with each word as even her touch seemed to be having no effect on the boy, “Black! For God’s sake would you leave that thing alone?! We’ve been abandoned by our friends and don’t know if they’re still in the village or if they’ve gone back to the castle” he turned his head in her direction and shrugged, grabbing the basket-full of treats that was hovering on her right and went to pay for all the things she had chosen, she stood there, frozen, then Black gave her the bag with all her sweets and started making his way out of the store “Oh, Merlin, aren’t you coming Prince?” he snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose, though she could tell he was trying to suppress a smile, she nodded and made her way outside with him. Perhaps the day might not be a total loss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is Daughter's song.  
> I finally figured some stuff I want to include, what's going to happen with Pettigrew and a sexy nod to the must hyphened character ever, which I think might be good. I don't know why I type this things before I finish typing the chapters.  
> This is the only chapter for this weekend, tomorrow we're going to another state, my niece has a gymnastics competition - which then might send her to another one in Europe, wish us luck :D


	8. Chapter Seven: Beginners

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severine and Sirius interactions, it might be awkward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're not mine. This chapter is short. I've been struggling a bit with my muse... Oh well, I still hope you like it.

Chapter 7: Beginners

Sirius was in trouble, what the hell had he been thinking? He should just have left Prince at Honey Dukes and go after James, who was high on his list of enemies at the moment, right after Chang, that is, and speaking of Chang, what had happened there? Well, he would have to find out, problem was that he didn’t want to seem like he _cared_ or anything, because in fact he did not.

“So… Prince, what happened to your _date_ with whatshisname?” see, he didn’t even care about Alexander Chang’s name enough to actually say it — it had nothing to do with the fact that just the thought of him alone with Severine was enough to make him feel like he was going to be sick — “It wasn’t a date, Black, and you could actually try and call people by their names, his is Alexander, or you could call him Chang, which is his last name and would be more appropriate, I guess, as he is not your friend” Sirius had to run to close the gap left between them when Severine said that, he had tuned it all out after she said it hadn’t been a date — that admission had made him feel something funny in his stomach, like he was queasy but in a good way? And a wave of giddiness he didn’t want to look too close into washed over him — “Yeah, whatever, so you just left him? Not a very _appropriate_ thing to do, was it? But I guess he might not have been interesting enough”, he teased, though he really wanted to know what had gone wrong, after all he hadn’t forgotten the whole thing with Meilin Xu that morning, what had _that_ been about? “No, Black, I didn’t just leave him, and it’s none of your business but if you really want to know, he is in fact very interesting, the problem was that none of us was _interested_ and so I left” she said, still walking towards the castle.

Sirius remained silent after that, he didn’t quite know what to make out of it, hadn’t she been happy when he’d asked her to go with him? What did she mean, she wasn’t interested? And why the hell did that make the queasiness come back?! Too soon for his liking they reached the entrance hall, and lo and behold! Remus, James and Lily were already there, looking as if nothing had happened, though as soon as they spotted them, a frowning Lily started approaching them, and Severine just looked at him, she was pinker than he’d ever seen her look — which, after the whole Chang asking her out debacle, was saying something indeed — she put something in his hand, before running to her friend and tugging her towards the castle.

Sirius just stood there, puzzled, clutching at whatever it was the girl had handed him, it was James’ teasing voice that broke the spell that had fallen over him, “Sirius! My boy, you’re all grownup now! Tell us how your date was?” Remus tried and failed to hide a snicker behind his hand, and was shaking his head in amusement, Sirius felt his face grow hot and exclaimed “It was not a date!” and stormed towards the Gryffindor tower, mumbling about annoying friends. Once he was safely hidden in his room and with the curtains closed around his bed he took the small package out of his pocket, it was a small box of _Exploding Bon Bons_ with a piece of parchment attached to it — and just where had Severine got that from?!, the note was written with spiky and precise letters and it only read _Thank you for the sweets, Black. S. P._

He had a stupidly pleased grin on his face for the rest of the day.

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 _“What is wrong with me, giving him my sweets?!”_ Severine thought as she kept dragging a much too pleased Lily towards their charms classroom, which for some reason, and despite potions being her favourite subject, had always been their favourite, _“Why did I have to give him my favourite ones, and that note, what was I thinking!?”_ Well, now it was too late to do anything about that and she still had a bone to pick with her so called best friend.

“Is there anything wrong, Sev?” Lily’s amused voice broke her out of her musings as she closed the classroom door behind her, “Oh, I don’t know, you tell me, why you abandoned me with Black, of all people. Did you think it was a _good_ idea? You know how things are Lils! I can’t be alone with him! Ever” Severine’s response had started with a sneer but the last words were softly whispered, “Oh, Sev, it’s going to be alright, you might be wrong about him you know? I’ve noticed he always appears when there’s a boy around” Lily’s voice was soothing and by her tone, Severine knew she really thought it was true, but Severine also knew it was not as her friend thought, though Black was ever present if a boy came by, he had already told her once that she wasn’t pretty enough, she didn’t want to risk it again, she held her friend for a long while, allowing herself a small moment of  thinking _“what if”,_ before shaking her head, she let out a long sigh and walked out of the classroom, with Lily right behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is Slow Club's song.  
> Thanks to the people who've left Kudos, the ones who've hit on this, even if in the end you've decided this story isn't something you want to follow, people has even bookmarked this :3 It's so weird but it makes me happy you've even read this at all, I even have a couple of reviews, which again, I didn't even think would happen :)  
> \+ Personal stuff no one asked for: My niece got first place in her competition last week!!!  
> Perhaps you've noticed I changed Remus' pairing, well, that happened when I realised I didn't really want an OC which might have been annoying or just some "Oh yeah, that bird Remus is with" and I don't know, I like the idea of those two together, oh well... I might've just made things harder on myself.


	9. Chapter Eight: We are birds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The woes of being a teenager.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took so long to post this chapter, oh my God it's been a moth since I last posted anything! My vacation ended and uni's been super taxing lately.  
> I'm doing subtitles now, so I've spent a lot of time in front of a computer doing homework D:  
> I hope you like this chapter :D

Chapter Eight: We are birds

Being fourteen was proving to be difficult for Sirius Black, _of course_ he never expected life to be any easy, what with his parents being so… _peculiar_ and having rules for everything, but to be honest, he wasn’t expecting to suffer as much as your average teen, he was anything but average!

And yet, here he sat, barely able to breathe after waking up from a most disturbing dream, at that moment he would have given everything to have had a nightmare, but clearly life wasn’t going to be merciful to him; he was sure of it, especially once he remembered the face his dreams had conjured, the black hair like spilled ink and the alabaster skin — of course he was going to dream about her, seeing as she had only been on his mind for the last three years, he groaned loudly in annoyance, looking at his lap, _he didn’t need that right now, thank you very much._ He sighed and got out of bed, leaving the curtains draped around it to hide the evidence as long as possible — he remembered when the same thing had happened to that Pettigrew boy and how he and James had teased him about it, well, at least it wasn’t a weekend!

He grabbed his toiletries and his clothes for the day, and made his way to the bathrooms, another thing to be thankful for, the wetness he had felt made him wake up early enough to avoid any embarrassing confrontations with his roommates, so when he walked out of the showers, Remus and James were only starting to get their things ready for the day, it was a Wednesday so he grabbed the necessary books and went down to the common room.

He was sitting on his favourite spot when Evans walked down, she had a smallish box in her hands and it was wrapped in paper that depending how it caught the light looked either purple or blue, but he didn’t really pay it any attention, she was fiddling with a ribbon, trying to tie a bow around the box with it, there was a nagging thought at the back of his mind that kept telling him this particular Wednesday was special, but he couldn’t quite grasp why.

He had been sitting in the common room for a good fifteen minutes and just as he was getting desperate and ready to leave, his friends walked down, the nagging thought he had, became stronger but he still didn’t know why this day was so important, Remus sat down next to him and he also had a package wrapped — not as neatly as Lily’s, in colourful paper  and with a misshapen bow tied on top of it, the contents of this package were easier to figure out, it was obviously  a book, huh, even James had a package of his own, though his was just a box of _Charm Choc_ with a red bow on top of it, and he kept tossing it up in the air, so the bow was only barely hanging on to it.

They went down to the great hall together and both Lily and Remus kept throwing weird glances towards him, like he had to know what these presents meant, but for the life of him he could only remember that 1) it was a Wednesday and 2) they had potions with the Ravenclaws right after breakfast, that was it! So by the time they were finally at the Great Hall he felt a headache coming on and it wasn’t even 7:30 yet!

Sirius sat down and started piling food on his plate, that sensation that he was forgetting something increased tenfold when the doors opened and he saw Severine Prince walk in, she had a smile on her face and as she sat down on her usual spot, he realised they were directly in each other’s line of sight, he was staring at her, mouth full of bacon and there was _something_ in her eyes that made him lose his breath, she noticed his stare and gave him a hesitant smile, and right at that moment a beautiful brown owl swept down and landed right in front of the girl, taking her attention away from him and he had never felt this angry at an animal before, so at first he didn’t even notice the package attached to its leg until she called a house elf and asked it to take the (now) enormous box to her dorm; so of course it was already too late, this particular _Wednesday_ was January 9th, Severine’s birthday, good thing he already knew, life wasn’t going to give him a break.

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He made his way to professor Slughorn’s classroom, with no real interest in his upcoming class, his mind spinning a mile a minute, trying to come up with something he could give the girl, obviously anything that he could buy was out the table, as placing an owl order would take too long, and if he were to wait for the next Hogsmeade weekend he might as well place four different owl orders.

Evans and Prince were walking in front of them, the red head chattering away about all the things they could do to celebrate Severine’s birthday that weekend, so far she had already planned a secret party at the astronomy tower and a picnic by the lake, which only got giggled refusals from the raven-haired teen.

As they made their way into the classroom, the group separated, Lily and Severine made their way to the front of the classroom, and he and James stayed behind to get the spots closest to the door — nothing against _Sluggy_ they only liked getting out of the classrooms as fast as humanly possible, which got Remus to roll their eyes at them and take his spot next to the Lovegood kid, right behind the girls.

The professor stepped inside; making inane comments about the weather and other stuff Sirius didn’t bother to listen to, until he heard his name being called, it seemed as if Sluggy wans’t all that happy with his and James’ grades this year and he was making them change partners, at least until their skills improved; again, fate proved to be trying to make his life into a joke and Evans got sent to the back with James and he had to make his way to the front to pair up with Prince, being a teenager was about as fun as having his innards removed, he mused, as he saw the slender girl grab a leather thong and put her hair up in the familiar pony tail.

He was transfixed by the line of her neck, how graceful her movements seemed and didn’t realise he was staring until she cleared her throat and made him turn his attention to her face, oh there was that pink tinge again, making her look prettier than any other girl in school — and in that moment he felt resentful of her, for making him incapable of thinking of anything other than her, for making him dream of inappropriate things in such vivid detail, how he hated being a teenager! She cleared her throat once more, and asked him to get the ingredients they were going to need for the assigned potion and he rushed to the cupboard, trying desperately to calm his swirling thoughts.

When he was back at their work station she already had the materials they were to use and as he put the ingredients down, she proceeded to prepare them while completely disregarding the instructions given by the text book, muttering about incompetent brewers and their lack of common sense to realise the simplest of interactions between each component; “Not to burst your bubble or anything, Prince, but we ARE supposed to work in pairs and so far you’ve done all the work… Not that I really mind, but Slughorn probably will, besides, you’re completely ignoring the instructions on the book” he said with humour and a hint of annoyance in his voice, she scoffed but didn’t even look up from the table — where she was now slicing caterpillars, and told him that if he wanted to work in team so bad he could shake the peeled Shrivelfigs until they were ready, she didn’t bother to answer his remark about the instructions, seemingly knowing exactly what she was doing.

They kept working, with Severine telling Sirius exactly what to do and the girl making notes on her textbook — Sirius didn’t notice until he had to use the book to do his homework that the book she was scrawling on wasn’t her own, but _his,_ when the class was over, she made him hold the phial while she filled it with their potion, as he walked to leave their labelled work, he noticed that Evans and James’ potion looked exactly like the one on the textbook while his and Severine’s looked different,  the colour seemed to be brighter and as he grabbed his friends’ phial he noticed that the consistence was also better, he made a sound of approval and walked out of the classroom, where the rest of their group was waiting for him.

He had managed to forget — yet again, that that specific day was Severine’s birthday and was rudely reminded of this fact when Lily proceeded to give the taller girl a long hug and her small box, then Remus and James gave her the same treatment, making the pale girl flush in embarrassed delight, Xenophilius was fiddling with the hem of his robes until apparently he too remembered he had a present for his friend and took a small bracelet from his pocket, it had a pewter chain and instead of charms it had small pieces of glass coloured as the rainbow, this got a squeal from Severine and made her give the blond boy an extra-long hug that made Sirius roll his eyes and walk away, feeling inadequate as he still didn’t have anything to give to the raven-haired girl — that, and no matter how many times everyone assured him of Lovegood’s continued interest in Pandora Griffith, something still twisted in an ugly way in his gut every time he saw the preferential treatment he got from Severine Prince, whose interests he didn’t know.

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Lily saw the confused look her friend gave Black as he walked away, it was starting to merge into hurt at an alarming speed and so she proceeded to tell her friend to open the presents she had got from them. Severine then started making exaggerated frowns, inspecting Potter’s box of _Charm Choc,_ as if its contents were a mystery — they turned out to be a surprise though, instead of the expected _Charm Choc_ it was full of _Chocolate Frogs_ , it was a completely Potter thing to do, and it made the girl smile. Next she grabbed Remus’ gift and she knew it was a book, her quiet friend seemed to understand better than anyone else — Lily included, her thirst for knowledge, she still didn’t understand how the boy hadn’t landed himself a place in Ravenclaw, while getting a book from her friend wasn’t a surprise, the book itself _was_ , he had given her a book about _Non-Human Spirituous Apparitions_  (as he insisted on calling them) that hadn’t even been released yet! — She supposed those were the perks of being the author’s son, but still, her fascination with ghosts hadn’t diminished, if anything since encountering the castle’s ghosts _and Peeves_ it had increased. At last, she took the box wrapped in purple-blue paper and unwrapped it carefully, inside it had a Polaroid SX-70 Camera and the girl wasted no time in gathering her friends and making them pose for a picture, it was definitely one of the best presents she had ever received.

The rest of the day went by in a blur, every minute she was not in class she spent with her friends, Sirius Black was still conspicuously absent and she felt guilty that despite all of her friends’ efforts she still felt like something was missing, she worked to keep him out of his mind but he had been such a strong presence in her life the last years — despite everything, that she couldn’t help but feel like something had broken inside of her as he walked away without even acknowledging her.

She chastised herself as she made her way from the Great Hall, she decided she wouldn’t care for Black’s lack of attention, she would do without and she would find someone who could see her for who she was. As life would have it, just as she made her resolution clear, she reached her bed and saw an arrangement of pink carnations with pink hibiscus flowers and a few lilacs and forget-me-nots thrown in, they had a purple ribbon tied around their stems and a small note attached:

_They’re charmed to never wither  
— S.B_

_Ps: Happy Birthday_

She grabbed them carefully and put them on her bedside table, next to her new camera and the photos she had taken with her friends, as she got inside her covers she couldn’t help but think that all of her arithmancy problems put together were easier to solve than Sirius Black's thoughts, she let out a sigh and fell asleep with a small smile on her lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does anyone know Luna's mum real maiden name?


	10. Chapter Nine: You Want Everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius is still suffering (the joys of being a teenager!) and Severine still doesn't know what to make of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _I can't remember, much of anything,_  
>  _Faces passing by, and the time when we arrived._  
>  _But maybe, it's okay,_  
>  _Cause you make me feel alive, you make me realise that.._  
>  _You could try to be your best, but don't you know that it's suicide_  
>  _To want, you want, you want everything._  
>  _And you were right, this is a mess, because we're always picking sides._  
>  _But I won't let you have regrets, no way, no way._  
>  \- Snowmine

Damien Keyser - Sirius Black                                                                  Liza Golden - Severine Prince

  

Judith Bedard - Lily Evans                                    Danny Schwarz - James Potter

  

Marlon Teixeira - Remus Lupin                                   Michael Tintiuc - Regulus Black

Chapter Nine: You Want Everything.

 

That Wednesday Sirius woke up and found a small piece of parchment with a “thank you” written in the spidery scrawl he had become so familiar with, Slughorn had told him to pair up with Prince in every potions class, even for the theoretical parts, and he was loathe to admit that he was afraid of improving too much and getting back to work with James — nothing personal; besides, he didn’t seem too sad about working with Evans.

 

He was still having those weird dreams but now the face — which had once been blurry and undefined, had taken the sharp forms of Severine Prince’s face, needless to say, he wasn’t too happy about that, but now that they had spent a couple of hours working so close together, he knew exactly how many eyelashes she had, and he was developing a small obsession with her cupid’s bow.

 

He got up and grabbed his toiletries, making his way to the showers to start the day, Remus wasn’t in his bed and James was starting to stir, the Pettigrew boy was sound asleep and if the past two and a half years were any indication to his sleeping routines he was going to be late for class again.

 

Fifteen minutes later Sirius and his friends were ready for breakfast, they tried to wake Peter, and were somewhat successful, when they left he was rubbing his eyes and trying to remove what drool he had on his cheek.

 

******************************

 

Meanwhile, at the Great Hall, Severine was already digging into her full English breakfast, trying to eat around the egg yolk because she didn’t really liked its texture, she was somewhat distracted, thinking about the flowers that on her night-stand, still not any closer to understanding Sirius Black’s train of thought, at least she didn’t have any classes with the Gryffindors today, which was a good thing, considering the dream she had the night before — she didn’t remember most of it but it starred Sirius Black and it had made her giddy.

She was just finishing her meal when someone cleared their throat right behind her, she got a little startled but recovered quickly, as she turned around Severine saw the younger of the Blacks looking at her almost shyly.

 _“Can I sit with you?”_ he asked, his voice breaking slightly — whether from nerves or the process boys go through when they reach puberty she didn’t know; _“I — yes, I don’t see why not”,_ she answered, trying to think of the reason behind his request and coming up with nothing.

He sat down, back ramrod straight and completely stiff next to her, he was giving her a strange look, almost appraising and it was honestly starting to make her nervous. After what felt like an eternity for Severine — but couldn’t possibly be more than a minute or so, he finally broke the silence _“I would like to be your friend”_ he declared, though his tone was clear, there was a slight hint of apprehension and doubt in his voice. Severine tried not to choke on her food and nodded awkwardly, looking at him with round eyes, while she had her fair share of friends none of them — not even Xeno had ever asked directly to be friends with her.

Regulus took her puzzlement as a sign to elaborate so he continued _“I don’t think my housemates like me that much, they keep talking about my brother and how his actions have shamed the Black family —they’re calling him a blood traitor, and they seem to think it’s catching”_ this made Severine snort in derision, she almost knew a comment like that had to be from someone like Mulciber or Rosier, who kept shooting glares at Sirius and baiting him into ridiculous fights. _“It seems like your housemates are a bunch of spoiled children, and I wouldn’t wish the company of the likes of them onto anyone, but you **do** know they don’t like me that much either, don’t you?” _ she asked, a little amused by the fact that of all the people the younger Black could have picked to befriend he had chosen her.

Her only answer was a thoughtful hum but he didn’t move from where he was sitting, so she took that as acceptance. She hadn’t noticed much of what was going on around her so when Xeno exclaimed about Sirius having his head _infested_ with wrackspurts, she practically got whiplash form how fast she moved from looking at Regulus, only to discover the elder of the Blacks sending an angry glare to his younger brother.

Regulus only chuckled and grabbed his book-bag, he extended his hand towards Severine, which she took with her slightly trembling one and instead of shaking it — as she supposed he wanted to do, he turned it in his own and _kissed_ her knuckles, leaving a _very_ confused Severine behind, and Xeno complaining about the wrackspurts coming out of Sirius Black’s ears and how he would have to cleanse himself if they kept spreading around everyone else.

Severine’s only thought was **_“what did I just get myself into?”_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a crap person. Uni's taken all my free time, which _sucks_ but I'm still working on subtitles and this time it's harder than I'd thought.  
>  This was really short, but I hope you like it.  
> Please review, I really enjoy reading what you think about this thing I'm trying to shape into a somewhat decent story.  
> I've given them faces! D: What do you guys think? They're obviously older, but I think they work for how they will look like when they reach their ages (?)


	11. Chapter Ten: I Hope Time Doesn't Change Him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Valentine's day!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If they were mine I would probably be making some money, and as I'm still broke I guess they belong to someone else.

Chapter Ten: I Hope Time Doesn't Change Him

 

Valentine’s Day was just around the corner, Lily’s birthday had been amazing, Severine and Xeno had managed to throw Lily a small party in an unused classroom, Severine had even invited Regulus Black, seeing as the boy really had no friends in his own house and Severine knew only too well what that was like, as Lily had been her first friend ever. Even worse, the dark eyed girl had also realised that the Black brothers didn’t actually seem to be that close, Sirius kept storming off every time Regulus held her hand or hugged her — actually every time Reg was around, Sirius could be seen fuming somewhere near, Lily would always giggle and get a sly look on her face when Sirius acted that way; but Severine didn’t seem to understand, if Sirius wasn’t in good terms with his brother, and he never wanted to be anywhere near her when she wasn’t with Lily or Remus… why didn’t he want Regulus to be her friend? Did he really dislike her _that_ much?

 

Either way, Severine was very happy to be friends with Reg. He was actually like her little brother, and even though she had Lily, Remus, Xeno and even Potter, her friendship with Reg was extra special, as Lily kept pretending she didn’t have a crush on Potter and Xeno got all flustered and pink whenever Pandora was around, she was both glad and sad to see she and Regulus were the same, as she had noticed how the younger boy would look at Remus as if he was the moon and the stars without actually voicing his own feelings, for she was sure, that’s exactly how she still looked at the older Black, she just hoped things worked out for Reg in the end, after all, Remus was the most oblivious person Severine had ever met, and his mind only had room for school, chocolate and even some harmless pranks; but other than that, the boy could be trusted to not notice a bludger if it hit him in the face.

 

################################

 

Valentine’s Day was coming and Sirius Black was most definitely not happy. He had entertained the thought of asking Prince to Hogsmeade on the 16th, as a truce of sorts, and nothing more — obviously, but then; Regulus had got in the way and he seemed to be glued to the girl. Now, Sirius was certain he had been doing an amazing job of ignoring whatever the hell was happening to him and his feelings for the black-haired Ravenclaw; however, there was always a painful stab of **_something_** in his belly, something that made his blood boil, and his fists clench when his brother took so many liberties with the older girl; sure, he was just as clingy with Narcissa but she was their cousin and six years older than him, so this _thing_ with Prince just had to be something else.

 

His thoughts had become clouded and these days, more often than not, if he was not in class he could be seen looking for his brother or the Prince girl _, “if only there was a way of knowing where the people in this damned castle ARE!”_ he would think as he strode through the corridors, even managing to find some shortcuts he would later tell James or Remus about; he actually wanted to show them the hidden passages and alcoves he had found in his explorations around the castle while making sure his brother didn’t get into trouble — which was the wonderful ~~excuse~~ reason he had come up with, and that kept getting him unwanted scoffs from both of his friends; but he simply hadn’t had the time to do so.

 

Sirius was sitting on top of his bed, it was an hour past curfew and his friends were already asleep, they had been discussing their plans for the next Hogsmeade weekend and James had finally managed to find a way to get Lily to agree to go on a date with him, apparently they would simply go as a group and James would find a way to ditch them and stay alone with the redhead, Remus had just sighed and Sirius had to fight down the cackle that had threatened to come out, after all, if Prince was part of that group there was no chance of James getting Evans alone. He kept thinking about the Ravenclaw until he too fell asleep.

################################

Thursday, February 14, arrived too soon for some people and not soon enough for others, Regulus was still on the fence about many things but he sure as hell wasn’t ready to deal with Valentine’s Day, many girls from other houses kept making eyes at him and they wouldn’t _bloody well leave him alone_ , not only he wasn’t interested in _any_ girl, his obvious attachment to Severine had been seen as a challenge by some of the other girls, and seeing as a ridiculous amount of red and pink parcels were waiting for him at his usual spot in the Great Hall, he didn’t have any hopes of being invisible for the day.

Not only that, but on top of crazy Hufflepuffs, Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and the odd Slytherin, girls trying to _woo_ him, he also had to deal with the glares his brother kept throwing at him every time he was with Severine, _as if!_ Now, Severine was indeed a very pretty girl, but Regulus really wasn’t interested in girls — and who could blame him when, not two days after securing Sev’s friendship she had introduced him to the brown-eyed menace known as Remus Lupin? There was something about the older Gryffindor that intrigued Regulus, and he wasn’t a snake for nothing, he had noticed different things about the sandy-haired boy that only made the mystery stronger, and with the increase of intriguing things surrounding the older boy, Regulus simply couldn’t wrap his mind around any of the girls that kept throwing themselves at him.

If only life was simple, he had to find a way to stay away from any girl whose name wasn’t Severine or Lily, he had to deal with school, feelings he didn’t completely understand, and a crazy brother who for some reason seemed to be angry at both him and his best friend — and Regulus wasn’t stupid, he had also noticed his brother would stare at Severine for longer periods every day, and that he didn’t seem to notice that other girls were starting to send envious glares at his Ravenclaw friend behind her back.

As he made his way to lunch — the parcels from that morning had long been taken care of by Kreacher, just the thought of the ridiculous amount of love potions his elf had found hidden in sweets and cards made him shudder — he bumped into his brother’s back, Sirius, who was also walking towards the Great Hall, only at a slower pace, turned to him and sneered, Regulus could see he was angry, so he stepped back and apologised weakly.

“It’s not that you bumped into me that’s bothering” Sirius said in a cool tone, anger poorly disguised as indifference, “It’s more the fact that you keep getting in my way” he finished before storming off, Regulus just stood there dumbly for a few seconds before resuming his way towards the Great Hall.

Once he arrived, Severine waved at him, indicating that she wanted him to sit with her, Lovegood and Evans at the Ravenclaw table, he made his way over and sat right across form Sev, next to Lily, they were discussing how their days had been so far, and they could all agree that getting love potions before breakfast took the prize as the worst thing to happen to either of them, both Lily and Severine handed him small boxes, wrapped in black and white — his favourite colours — which he tore into eagerly, Lily had given him a box of _Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans,_ which he promised to share before curfew, and Severine had given him some _Acid Pops_ with a note that said to use them well, he laughed at that but he had to agree, they might save him from unwanted attention, finally, Xeno took some _dirigible plums_ out of _nowhere_ and handed them to him with a dreamy smile on his face. Regulus, who didn’t have any presents for his friends vowed to get them something as soon as he was able to.

Once he had finished his meal, and before he could run off to his next class, Severine gave him a piece of parchment that only said:

_Saturday, 11:00 am, by the lake._

He gave his friend a small frown, and a confused stare but she only smirked at him and left.

################################

Severine and Lily had decided on not joining the other students on Hogsmeade weekends for the rest of the school year, seeing as Regulus still had to finish his second year before being able to join them all, they had thought it better not to leave him alone in the castle on the weekends, so they planned a surprise picnic by the lake for him on the 16th, at first Lily had been a little sad to tell Potter and the other boys about this decision, but the most surprising thing for her, had been that Potter had even asked to join in, Remus was, eager to stay , stating that he felt he might be getting ill, but Black’s face had turned dark when she mentioned that Regulus was the reason Severine wanted to stay behind, this of course was interesting and it would need some special attention.

So that Saturday, four Gryffindors — three happy and a sour one — and two Ravenclaws arrived at the spot they had chosen by the lake, they could easily be seen; but they weren’t in the middle of everyone’s way, they started their preparations at 10:45 and ten minutes later everything was ready, they were all very comfortable despite the cold weather when the small Slytherin arrived.

Regulus was gobsmacked to see everyone there, but recovered quickly, sitting down next to Severine, only to be shoved away by a red looking older brother only to be met with an even redder faced Lupin, well… if nothing else, it would at least be interesting to see how things went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is completely irrelevant but I want everyone to know, the title "Keep You On My Side" is a song by CHVRCHES, and on September 28th I got to see them perform a live version of it, I swear, it was just as great as I thought it would be.


	12. Chapter Eleven: Recover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James has a plan. Sirius is _stubborn_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am back, and this chapter seems a little convoluted to me, but if I kept rewriting it and editing it, I'm sure I would have taken a lot longer.

Chapter eleven: Recover

As it turned out, having a picnic in February was not the best idea Severine had come up with, at least not for Remus, who ended up in the hospital wing for a few days after that. The worst part was that they weren’t even allowed to visit with him being so sick; it was really hard on the girls, and on Regulus who felt an attachment so deep to the older Gryffindor that made no sense to him.

Remus was no fool, he knew he shouldn’t have been getting too excited with the full moon so close, but he couldn’t just say no to his friends, they were the only ones he’d ever had and to him, being invited to something as simple as a picnic, was a true privilege, one he didn’t want to deny himself. What was extremely strange was that _his other side_ had behaved somewhat better lately, but some of that behaviour was a bit strange; Remus felt some weird need to look his best at all times, but it became even stronger whenever the small Slytherin was close, he had even had to fight some strange urge to _whine,_ and even worse, was the constant fight to keep himself from _grooming_ Regulus, either combing his hair or fixing his tie, those urges were best kept at bay when he was able to spend a few minutes with the youngest of the Blacks, and much to his dismay, he had taken to _bowing_ to him, it was always an almost unnoticeable inclination of the head, but _he knew_ it was meant to be a bow and that was bad enough. Being a teenager **_and_** a werewolf was getting harder to understand.

############################

James, on the other hand, might have just discovered the secret of how to be a happy teenage boy, and it was really simple if you asked him, you only needed to get the girl, now how exactly was he planning to “get his girl” was another matter entirely. He knew Lily was the girl for him, now he only had to get her to see he was the one for her as well. So far all of his attempts had only got him some of her attention, but James being the only child of parents who loved him _very much_ wasn’t used to getting things by halves, so he needed to do something really amazing to get all of her attention. Maybe he could do something on the next quidditch match?

James Potter was a complete dunderhead. There was no other explanation. Of all the moronic things he had done, this one definitely took the prize. Sure, Lily enjoyed quidditch as much as the next Gryffindor, but did he really need to do t _hat?_ Ok, so he had already scored about a hundred points or something like that, but then the _nitwit_ had started looking for something in his pockets and _didn’t see the bloody bludger_ the Slytherin beater had aimed towards him, which _of course_ hit him hard enough to send him to the ground. Lily was terribly upset, how could she not? Potter had been a really good friend to her all this time, and to be honest — at least with herself, she had a soft spot for him, okay she had a _very_ soft spot for the boy, and she even found his unruly mop of hair adorable. But did that give him the right of acting so carelessly and scaring her half to death?

So when James was taken to the hospital wing, Lily marched right behind McGonagall, intent on giving him a piece of her mind once she was sure he was alright, of course.

############################

Severine, was also worried for Potter, that was a very bad fall and she had seen how it had upset Lily, which only helped in worrying her further, Lily had always been careful not to show any strong reaction to Potter’s antics, maybe this time was different, what with it not being entirely his fault, but honestly, wasn’t Potter supposed to be good at this? Getting distracted in such a way had most definitely not been a good move.

She saw her friend following McGonagall, the small redhead had got really pale and her face seemed torn between a scowl and a pout, her lower lip quivering, and her eyes angry. Severine sighed and got up from her place in the Ravenclaw stands, Xeno said something about an umgu-thing, and she took that to mean he was staying. As she was walking to the castle, she ran into Remus and Sirius, they were also headed to the hospital wing so she went with them, though this did make Sirius walk faster, she tried to reason it away as him being worried for his friend, though it did hurt that he decided to hurry only when she had joined them. Severine followed Remus to the hospital wing, wondering why she even bothered.

When she and Remus arrived at the hospital wing, Sirius was already there, he was sitting next to Lily and Severine couldn’t tell which one of them was fidgeting more, even the Ravenclaw was feeling more than a bit anxious.

She sat with them, waiting for Potter to wake up, Madame Pomfrey had already tried and failed to get them out of there, saying that Potter had been given a sleeping potion to keep him from stepping on his injured leg, he was, after all, famous for doing reckless things and on his many stays in the hospital wing, the matron had come to know how much of an escapist he was — apparently he had an endless well of sheer dumb luck because the fall had only been showy and caused him a lot less damage than expected.

After the medi-witch’s assessment of the chaser’s continued health, some of the tension left the four worried teens, the room seemed somewhat lighter and this made Severine hyper aware of the fact that, while Sirius Black was indeed worried about his friend, he also seemed to be trying to ignore her even harder than usual, having had enough awkwardness for one day, she decided to go back to her common room, she squeezed Remus’ hand and walked to the other side of the bed, and gave Lily a quick hug, whispering into her ear to please let her know when Potter woke up — after all, she really didn’t want to miss the dressing down the Gryffindor was sure to receive.

############################

Sirius was not happy. If anything, he was the complete opposite, whatever that was; because he couldn’t actually say he was unhappy. It was just that these days, he found himself more often than not thinking about a certain black-haired Ravenclaw, his best mate was lying on a cot in the hospital wing and instead of giving all of his attention to that, he kept wondering why the girl wouldn’t look at him. Yeah, sure, he had practically run away from her when she caught up to him and Remus on their way to the hospital wing, but that had hardly been his fault; he couldn’t afford any distractions and there she had appeared, her hair looked wind-blown and her cheeks were flushed, and that had brought back the same strange tingling he felt when they were working close together in potions classes, he really couldn’t be distracted by her _now_!

The worst part of his day, however, had been when he saw her walk into Madame Pomfrey’s domain holding on to Remus’ hand, he knew he shouldn’t care whose hand she grabbed, after all, he really didn’t want to think about her — lately he wondered if he was just being silly, but that was just the way of things, and still, he couldn’t keep his eyes from straying to where her small, slender hand was _still_ clutching his friend’s larger one, her face frowning in worry for the boy on the cot only made him feel guilty for not being able to give all of his attention to _his best friend,_ he looked away from her, focusing on James and only glancing at her a few more times before Remus caught his eye and winked at him, causing him to go a shade of red worthy of their common room and making him stare intently at the spot James was lying on. Even after the medi-witch’s attempts at getting them to leave, even after she said James would be fine, he was determined to not even glance at her.

After a few minutes of strained silence, Sirius was starting to seriously consider banging his head on the nearest wall if it gave him something to concentrate on other than the fact that out of the corner of his eye he could see Severine’s hand squeezing Remus’, and suddenly she was walking to the side where he and Evans had been sitting at, for one crazy moment he thought she was walking towards him, but of course she wasn’t, she had no reason to. He saw her give Lily a quick hug and he thought he heard some whispering, but just as suddenly she was gone, without even looking at him.

Once she was out of the hospital wing and Evans’ attention was firmly back on James’ face he looked at Remus, who only gave him a sly look and said “You should tell her, you know?”, before acting as if nothing had happened. _And wasn’t that infuriating?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter's title is from Chvrches' song by the same name... and don't worry, James is getting that talking to, and we'll definitely know what he was doing instead of paying attention to the game, I just couldn't keep this chapter on my computer any longer :D   
> Please review :3 It'll keep me off writing my final dissertation :D

**Author's Note:**

> Please feel free to review, I don't really know what I'm doing and I hope I don't come off as a blabbering idiot with this.  
> English is NOT my first language but I try to keep my grammar and spelling as tidy as I can. If you find any mistakes, do let me know.  
> \+ As I learned English as a foreign language you might notice I use British spelling with some American slang, I'm sorry if this rubs you the wrong way, I learned English with the British spelling but I have more American input (though I refuse to call chips fries and some other things you may notice if you keep up with me)


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